SMK Balingian project may be delayed due to lack of funding – Rep
SIBU: The construction of SMK Balingian may be delayed as the state Education Department strives to obtain more funds.
According to the proposed schedule, works on the project should commence next month.
However, Balingian assemblyman Abdul Yakub Arbi pointed out that the approved RM60-million allocation for the project was insufficient.
“The state Education Department is trying to request for extra funds for the earthworks after the soil investigations is done.
“By doing that ( requesting for additional funding), it might delay the job. I am not very happy actually (with this development),” he told The Borneo Post when contacted yesterday.
He was asked if the project would commence next month after a long wait.
“( The project is) not likely to start in May – once you apply for an increase in budget, this may delay the thing. That is why I am worried.”
The area has many primary schools, but it does not have a secondary school.
According to Abdul Yakub, having a secondary school in Balingian would reduce the burden borne by parents as the nearest secondary school is in Mukah – about a 40- minute drive away.
Then- Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin made a promise during the Balingian by- election in 2014 that SMK Balingian would be built.
Muhyiddin was quoted as having announced the approval of RM60 million for the building of a new 24- classroom secondary school, which should be able to accommodate 800 students from the Balingian Subdistrict.
In April last year during a gathering at Kampung Masjid in the sub- district, the media reported Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi as saying that construction works on the proposed SMK Balingian would commence soon.
He was also quoted as saying that a land had been identified for the school’s site and the building plan was being drawn up.