Uggah: Giving Sarawak Education director authority to approve school maintenance projects will allow reps to help
KUCHING: The recent decision to allow the Sarawak Education director to approve projects directly funded by the state government would enable more elected representatives to help in the maintenance or upgrading of schools in their constituencies, said Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas.
“I am very happy with the decision, as we are all very ready to help our schools. This is because we view education as absolutely important for our future generation to deal with future challenges well,” he said after a ‘Back to School’ programme in Spaoh yesterday.
The Bukit Saban assemblyman was commenting on the decision reached at a Joint Action Committee for Education Development meeting here on Feb 22.
Uggah, who is also Betong Division Development Agency chairman, said the agency could now also allocate development funds to schools.
“It can be used to help our schools especially for urgent requests,” he said.
It was previously reported that Education Minister Fadhlina
Sidek and Sarawak Minister of Education, Innovation and Talent Development Dato Sri Roland Sagah Wee Inn co-chaired the committee meeting, where it was decided that the authority given to the state Education Department would shorten the bureaucratic process for the implementation of projects.
Besides projects that are funded by the state government, authority is also given to the director for other projects not funded by the state government, but with prior concurrence by Sagah’s ministry where previously, the authority to approve these projects despite being funded by the state government, would lie with the Education Ministry (MoE) in Putrajaya.
Uggah said he had recently voiced out his concern over the matter prior this decision, citing a case where he said he donated several units of air-conditioners for a school hall upon the request of the school principal, but they had to be kept in the school’s storeroom and could not be installed pending MoE’s approval.
Meanwhile, yesterday’s ‘Back to School’ programme involved the presentation of schoolbags to students from seven schools in the Bukit Saban constituency.
Uggah said the programme was jointly funded by him and Betong MP Dr Richard Rapu.
The bags were received by the respective school principals, teachers or chairmen of their parent-teacher associations (PTAs).
Meanwhile, Uggah called upon all primary schools in Bukit Saban to resolve problems of students who were still unable to read, write, or calculate following six years of studying.
He revealed that he had been receiving feedback on such situations happening in schools in his constituency.
“I have told the headmasters and members of the PTAs to resolve any such issue within these two or three years,” he said.
He was happy to note that one such school, SK Nanga Gayau, had managed to resolve this problem well.
“Some of its students who could not read, write or do simple calculations previously can now perform them,” he said.