STU hopes more allocation for education in Budget 2018

SIBU: Sarawak Teachers Union (STU) hopes the coming National Budget 2018 will see increased allocation for the education sector.

STU president Jisin Nyud noted that Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has mentioned that the federal government will continue to put the rebuilding of dilapidated schools in Sarawak on its major agenda for the country.

Looking at the data, Sarawak has 1,454 schools out of which 1,020 are in dilapidated conditions – 415 in category DS3, 210 in category DS2 and 395 in category DS1, said Jisin.

“Based on this, the amount should not be doubled, but tripled,” he told The Borneo Post yesterday when asked on STU’s hope for the coming national budget.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, who is also Finance Minister, will table the Budget 2018 on Oct 27.

Jisin said besides the common issues of dilapidated and shortage of school buildings, other issues such as roads and communication should also be the top priorities.

“Roads and communication are indeed very urgent issues. Since 1963, there has been not much development on roads here compared to West Malaysia.

“We want all the schools to be accessible by good roads. There are so many advantages to the school and the society if this issue can be resolved. Good roads, communication and infrastructure are just like opening the gates of opportunities,” he suggested.

He observed that a lot has been talked about the high cost of maintenance and building schools.

He added: “Why is it high? This is due to the high cost of transportation and labour. There has been cries for the rural and interior schools to get enough allocations because the cost of delivering the materials and services is very high compared to town schools.

“All good roads are preceded by other good facilities to the villagers and the schools such as electricity, water and telecommunication services. Can you imagine having 24-hour electricity, clean water and fast internet lines?”

Jisin pointed out that life would change tremendously as nowadays, there are more and more school programmes online.

“The passion and enthusiasm of teachers and students are very important because they are in school almost every day. This is why school facilities must be at its best in order for them to be creative and innovative.

“On the school buildings, we know that Sarawak needs more school buildings as to date, we still have double- session schools due to lack of school buildings.

“If this issue is not resolved we will never have single- session schools. Our Deputy Prime Minister had also given his view during a press conference at Sibu Airport that from his observation and the briefing that was given to him, only 29.8 per cent of the schools in Sarawak are conducive for learning while the rest are either dilapidated or partially dilapidated.

“This shows that Sarawak schools need major transformation with a huge budget.

“I believe in a conducive environment because it can change not only the students’ performance, but the performance of teachers,” he stressed.