MoE: 97.8 pct of school toilets maintenance, repair projects completed

KUALA LUMPUR: As of Feb 29, a total of 7,852 or 97.8 per cent of toilet maintenance and minor repair projects in schools and educational institutions under the Ministry of Education (MoE) have been successfully concluded.

In a written response published on Parliament’s website, the ministry informed that the projects carried out under the special allocation for the Upgrading and Minor Maintenance of Educational Institutions for the Year 2023 amounted to RM654.29 million, involving 8,354 schools and educational institutions.

“The initiative covered 8,306 government schools and 48 educational institutions (matriculation colleges, Institut Aminuddin Baki and Institut Pendidikan Guru), with an allocation of RM70,000 for each government school and RM200,000 for each educational institution,” it said.

The ministry was addressing a question from Datuk Dr Ahmad Yunus Hairi (PN-Kuala Langat) concerning the progress of school toilet upgrading projects and the factors leading to their incompletion.

According to MoE, 174 or 2.2 per cent of the projects are still ongoing, while the postponed projects in 310 schools in Sarawak will be resumed this year.

The remaining 18 in new schools have been dropped due to being within the defect liability period.

It said the postponement in Sarawak was due to time constraints, locality issues, and a shortage of construction workers to complete the projects last year.

Meanwhile, MoE also disclosed that from 2016 to 2024, a total of 1,069 dilapidated school buildings reconstruction projects costing RM8.34 billion have been approved, of which 694 have been completed, 159 are in the construction stage, and 216 are in the pre-construction stage as of Feb 15.

“As of January 2024, there are 1,149 schools with dilapidated buildings nationwide waiting for approval. Of this number, 110 schools will submit their applications in the Fifth Rolling Plan of the 12th Malaysia Plan in 2025.”

This was in response to a query from Dr Richard Rapu (GPS-Betong) on the status of new construction projects or improvements for dilapidated schools in Malaysia, as well as details on the number of scale six and seven dilapidated schools awaiting approval.

MoE further stated that it is currently assessing the feasibility of constructing replacement buildings for 1,039 schools based on their actual needs, excess land, and land ownership status.