‘Issue of dilapidated schools discussed before PAC report’

This was also mentioned to Fadhlina (during the recent meeting in Kuching), but I must respect her position also because she would still need to ask (for funds) from the federal Ministry of Finance (MoF). The main person responsible later on is the Minister of Finance, the Prime Minister himself. If the Minister could approve all the money, then we’re happy to do it.

— Dato Sri Roland Sagah Wee Inn, Education, Innovation and Talent Development Sarawak

SERIAN: The Ministry of Education, Innovation and Talent Development Sarawak (MEITD) had held meetings with relevant government ministries and agencies, discussing the issue of dilapidated schools in the state, before the tabling of the report by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

Minister Dato Sri Roland Sagah Wee Inn said the MEITD had also scheduled a meeting on Friday where it held a lab with all the ministries, including an officer in charge of development from the federal Ministry of Education (MoE), alongside the MEITD, Sarawak Skills, Public Works Department (JKR) Sarawak, Land and Survey Department, and other relevant departments.

“We’ve had a very fruitful session where we discussed the ways to improve the implementation of projects (repairs and upgrading of dilapidated schools), which have been approved,” he told reporters when met after performing an earth-breaking ceremony at SMK Tarat here yesterday.

Sagah, who is Tarat assemblyman, also said he had met federal Minister of Education Fadhlina Sidek and informed her about the situation in Sarawak.

“This was also mentioned to Fadhlina (during the recent meeting in Kuching), but I must respect her position also because she would still need to ask (for funds) from the federal Ministry of Finance (MoF).

“The main person responsible later on is the Minister of Finance, the Prime Minister himself. If the Minister could approve all the money, then we’re happy to do it,” he added.

In its report on March 21, the PAC had given MoE a two-month deadline to respond and implement four recommendations regarding the issue of dilapidated schools before it is summoned for follow-up proceedings.

On this, Sagah remarked: “Two months to respond

– it’s easy to answer if there’s a response from the MoF.”

When asked on whether his ministry had implemented initiatives to assist in the repair and upgrading works on the dilapidated schools, he said the state had some listed under ‘Projek Rakyat’ (People’s Project), which covered the construction of new schools.

“However, since the jurisdiction of such matter lies under the federal side, the state cannot afford to do it every time.

“We have to look for our own state money and we assist – that much we can do, but infrastructure-wise, we cannot do anything about it except with the agreement of the federal government, when we have the money.

“Many schools (in Sarawak) have been certified unfit (for use) more than 12 years ago, and one of those schools are the aided schools such as mission schools, which are not covered under MoE.

“So what we did was we use our funds from the Sarawak Unit for Other Religions (Unifor) to assist these schools. Some are dilapidated, some are deemed unfit,” said Sagah.