Assemblyman express concern over students' safety from intrusion

KUCHING: Tanjong Datu assemblyman Datuk Amar Jamilah Anu yesterday voiced her concern over the safety of students in SMK Sematan who are exposed to the possibility of intrusion by foreign workers from the nearby farms and plantations.

Jamilah urged the state Education, Science and Technology Research Ministry to give serious attention to the problem, especially in view of the dilapidated school fence, which had collapsed.

“Urgent action is needed before it is too late, particularly as it involved the lives of the students,” she said when debating the State Supply Bill at the State Legislative Assembly sitting here yesterday.

Touching on the issue of 415 school categorised as critically dilapidated in Sarawak, she said seven out of that total are in her constituency, whose classrooms were not only in need of repairs but the teachers quarters also needed to be repaired or reconstructed.

“I hope the Education, Science and Technology Research Ministry can give priority to this matter,” she said, adding that these schools also required science labs and electric rewiring works.

She said SMK Lundu required a new building for special education class to accommodate 70 students who were in dire need of such a facility.

Touching on the state government's digital economy initiative, Jamilah said students in Sarawak should be equipped with adequate higher education, training and competence so that they could contribute their expertise from the technical aspects in infrastructure development and other requirements of the digital economy.

“We don't want our children to be mere users in the digital economy system because the foundation for them to get an education and training in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) is limited,” she said.