Workshop to identify dilapidated schools

KUCHING: A two-day workshop on identifying Dilapidated Schools (DS) in Sarawak will be held at Imperial Hotel here from July 11.

Thirty-one district education officers (PPD) as well as representatives from the state Education Department, Public Works Department, Land and Survey Department and Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Research will converge to identify 100 most DS to be either rebuilt or merged.

Assistant Minister of Education and Technological Research Dr Annuar Rapaee said the 100 schools, once identified, will be rebuilt or merged starting January next year.

“The Chief Minister wants the project on the 100 schools to kick off next January and be ready by 2020.”

He said the workshop is in line with Chief Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg’s initiative to resolve the issue of DS in the state.

“Recently, the chief minister met the prime minister who agreed to the proposal for the state to use its own funds to rebuild DS. So the July 11-12 workshop will identify the 100 schools.

“Enough is enough, the federal government must give top priority on the DS issue in Sarawak,” he said at a press conference in his ministry’s office here yesterday.

Dr Annuar said the main reason why Abang Johari formed a state education ministry was to solve DS issue promptly rather than keep on waiting for federal funds.

“We can’t wait any longer from Putrajaya to deal with this important issue which is the future of our people in Sarawak,” he stressed.

Citing SK Sungai Arang as an example, he said he hoped that the school would agree to be relocated if the workshop agreed on a relocation plan for it.

Even though the PPD Baram has suggested to the state Education Department to relocate the school, he said the ministry would arrive at a decision in the upcoming workshop.

Dr Annuar said some schools had to be relocated or merged with other school because the government might not be able to provide sufficient teachers and specialist teachers.

In the Baram District alone, he said 44 schools are located within 50 metres from the river bank.

“If we can merge them, we can then pool all the resources because we do not have enough teachers. There are situations now whereby teachers who are not teaching, for example, Mathematics are asked to teach Maths.

“If we decide to relocate those schools, we still need to get the blessings from teachers, parents and YBs (elected representatives). And I hope they will accept it,” he added.

Dr Annuar said he was aware that some quarters were worried about transportation if the schools were relocated.

He felt that transportation should be the least of the problem when it came to the bigger issue of DS in Sarawak.

He pointed out that 415 schools out of the 1,020 DS fell under the DS3 category, which is the worst among all categories.

“All schools under the DS3 category are old and dilapidated and have been in existence for over 50 years,” he said.