Kajian kes pelaburan pendidikan modal insan di kalangan suku kaum Sama-Bajau di Kota Kinabalu: halatuju dan cabaran

Sama-Bajau is one of the ethnic ‘Son of the Soil’ and the second largest ethnic in Sabah. To date, the livelihood of Sama-Bajau ethnic has gone through a major evolution where the process of urbanization and globalization have given a direct impact to their wellbeing. Undoubtedly urbanization and globalization have created more challenging environment. In today’s challenging environment, the new generation in general must equip themselves with high levels of education. The respondent of this study focuses on Sama-Bajau ethnic and discusses some of the hurdles that confronted them. Menggatal located in the Municipality of Kota Kinabalu city is one of the areas in Sabah where majority of the Sama-Bajaus are located. The main objective of this research is to examine the level of investment in human capital by Sama-Bajau ethnic. Data analysis is based on primary and secondary. The primary data gathered through questionnaires distributed to the respondent based on the information given by the heads of the villages. A total of 218 heads of the household in Menggatal area were identified as respondent in this research. This study shows that the levels of education among Sama-Bajaus are relatively low. Considering Menggatal area is strategically located where most of the institutions of higher learning both public and private are located, this area is also surrounded by most major business centers as well as housing projects. Thus, it has become a concern of the factors contributing to the low levels of education among the Sama- Bajau ethnic. This study shows that one of the factors contributing to this problem is the issue of poverty. Poverty is seen as one of the major hurdle hindering most of the people of this ethnicity from providing good education for their children. The awareness on the importance of education among Sama-Bajau’s parents is found to be low. Further, this study shows that parents of these ethnics placing less emphasis on education, as a result high percentage of drop outs among Sama-Bajau ethnic at both SPM and STPM levels. This paper also analyzes the way forward and challenges and concluded with suggestions and policy recommendations towards the importance of investment in human capital for Sama-Bajau in particular and the Bumiputeras of Sabah in general.