800 students attend classes under six canopies
TELUPID: The first day of school for over 800 students of Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Pekan Telupid was different from a typical day in a classroom when they had to attend class in the open under canopies.
This was due to apparent delay in repairs to the buildings in the primary school that were damaged by strong winds on June 18 last year, which saw the roofs of most of the buildings blown off or damaged.
According to SK Pekan Telupid headmaster Dominic Nara, he had been assured by various government departments that the school was fit to conduct classes before making the decision to reopen the school after the storm.
However, he said the repairs to the school buildings took a long time, resulting in the students having to study under six canopies that were specially set up.
“We have over 800 students and they are divided into morning and afternoon sessions. For newly registered Primary One students, there are 149 of them. So we have a lot of students; SK Pekan Telupid is the biggest school in Telupid, so you can imagine that a lot of people are affected by this,” he said when contacted yesterday.
Dominic said only one very old building with four classrooms could be utilised for the time being, and the classrooms were now utilised by Primary One students (afternoon session) and Primary Six students (morning session).
“There are eight classes for each session that are using the canopies for class sessions; eight classes from Primary Two and Three, and another eight from Primary Four and Five,” he said.
Dominic said he hoped the relevant government departments would assist the school in speeding up the repair works or come up with the best temporary solution for the students.
Meanwhile, one of the parents of students expressed his disappointment over the situation.
He said he expected the roofs to have been fixed by now since the storm incident happened six months ago.
“I hope they can speed up the repair works. I leave my child at the school with a heavy heart knowing that my child will only be covered with a canopy, be it in the rain or under the hot sun,” he added.