‘We will not close schools with low student numbers’

The Education Ministry has given its assurance that it will not close any schools with low student numbers in the state.

Education Minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid said in fact, his ministry had never closed any schools with low student numbers, unless the parents no longer wanted their children to attend the school and wanted to transfer them to other schools.

He added that another factor that would lead to the closure of a school would be when a school had no student for two years.

“Unless parents say they do not want (their children) to go to the school and transfer somewhere, then we will close (the school). Another factor that will lead to the closure will be when a school has totally no students for two years. There was an incident in Sarawak (when a school) had no student for two years. Therefore, we had to close the school.

“We normally will give allowance for the first year, and if still no student has enrolled in the second year, then we will close (the school),” Mahdzir told a press conference after launching the state-level ‘Guru Aktif 1Malaysia’ ( GA1M) at SMK Lundu here yesterday.

Mahdzir said a school could be classified as a school with low student numbers when it had less than 150 students.

“But normally in Sarawak, there are cases of 30, 20 or even 10 students. It is normal in Sarawak to see schools with less than 30 students but we didn’t close (them).”

Meanwhile, Mahdzir, during his speech at the event, announced an allocation of RM4 million for the repair and rebuilding of schools in the Tanjong Datu constituency.

According to him, three schools in the area had received an allocation for the same purpose and some of the projects have already been completed.

He added that this showed the ministry’s concern in the effort to strengthen the education system in the state by ensuring that the provision of learning infrastructures continued to be the priority.

“The construction of the Special Education Block in Sekolah Kebangsaan Bumiputera Lundu has been fully completed, as well as the construction to replace a dilapidated block with the construction of six classrooms and a Science room at SK Siar Campuran.

“As for SK Pugu, the school is given an allocation for repairing and maintenance works for its classroom blocks as well as other infrastructure.”

Madhzir added that with these projects, the education infrastructure in the schools concerned would be more systematic, thus creating a more conducive environment for the learning process.

He was also confident that the projects could have a big impact on the performance of the schools involved, especially in increasing education standards in the schools around Tanjong Datu.

“These projects actually give opportunity to schools in rural areas to close the gap with schools in the city and therefore enable the schools to achieve greater excellence.”

On the event, Mahdzir said GA1M was an initiative to mobilise the educators at school, district and state levels.

Through the initiative, he said the committee could implement activities that were deemed suitable with the local community, including collaborating with nongovernmental organisations, Parent-Teacher Associations or charity bodies in activities such as ‘gotong-royong’ and assisting poor students.

Also present during the event yesterday were Welfare, Women and Community Wellbeing Minister Datuk Fatimah Abdullah, Education director- general Tan Sri Dr Khair Mohamad Yusof, Education Ministry secretarygeneral Datuk Seri Alias Ahmad and state education director Rakayah Madon.