All-night ‘joget’ a no-no

SERIAN: The practice among rural communities to hold ‘joget sampai pagi’ (singing and dancing till early morning) during nightly functions should be put to a stop.

Education, Science and Technological Research Minister Dato Sri Michael Manyin said such practice brings more harm than good, and does not contribute to the progress of the community.

While he is happy that some rural areas have stopped allnight merriment by setting a time limit for entertainment, he was sad that some areas still do such events until the wee hours of the morning.

“In the areas where they stopped the ‘joget sampai pagi’, there is significant improvement such as increased number of graduates among their younger generation.

“The only way for the rural community to progress and break out from poverty is through education. The ‘joget sampai pagi’ leads to bad habits among the younger generation and this will not guarantee a better future,” he said when speaking at a meetthe-people session at Kampung Bantang, near here on Saturday night.

The Tebedu assemblyman was in the village to officially launch the Sunday School and a village bridge, and also to perform the earth-breaking for the hall of St Bartholomew’s Church.

All the three projects were funded through the Rural Transformation Programme (RTP) for Tebedu.

Manyin also called on parents in the constituency to support the proposal to set up centralised schools to provide better schooling facilities for their children.

He said some parents might be initially unhappy with the proposal to close schools in their villages in order to be merged with a bigger school at another village, but the benefits of the move should outweigh their worries.

“Once the parents agree, we will start building the centralised schools early next year. These schools will have good facilities, including science labs, and the students will be taught by specialist teachers,” he said.

He also shared the situation faced by him when attending a nationallevel meeting chaired by Education Minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid, where he had brought up the issue of dilapidated schools.

Manyin pointed out that this was because other states do not have such problem anymore, as their schools are in much better condition.

“In Sarawak, there are 1,454 schools in total comprising 190 secondary and 1,264 primary schools. But 1,020 of these schools are dilapidated - defects here and there.

“With such conditions, how are our students going to compete with their peers from the peninsula? Therefore, next year we will start repairing these schools with the RM1 billion allocated by the Chief Minister,” he said.