Ministry aims to replace all dilapidated school buildings
KOTA KINABALU: The Education and Innovation Ministry aims to get rid of all dilapidated schools in Sabah and have them replaced with new buildings.
Its minister Datuk Dr Yusof Yacob said this would be done in phases.
“We will fight for it until all the dilapidated schools are replaced,” he told press members after attending a briefing with other assemblymen and parliamentarians from Sabah at Wisma Bandaraya, yesterday.
He said the state had been given a RM1 billion funding during the 11th Malaysia Plan for the purpose and so far, a total of 120 dilapidated schools were in the process of undergoing reconstruction utilising the Industrialised Building System (IBS).
To date, RM400 million from the federal funding has already been utilised.
Next year, the new ministry plans to use the balance from the funding to replace another 120 dilapidated schools in Sabah, he said.
The cost of the construction for each school may differ from each other due to various reasons, one of which is logistics, he said.
“Of course, schools that are located in rural areas will cost more because of the logistics factor,” he said.
Meanwhile, Sabah Education Department director Datuk Maimunah Suhaibul said there were five categories of schools in Sabah.
She said the acutely dilapidated schools comprised those that had been built more than 40 years ago.