‘Enough diesel till year-end for school generators’
KUCHING: The 371 schools in Sarawak which are using dieselpowered generators to generate electricity can rest assured that there will be sufficient supply of the fuel until the end of the year.
Education, Science and Technological Research Minister Dato Sri Michael Manyin Jawong said this was the assurance given by Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik during his courtesy call on the latter at his ministry in Putrajaya last Friday.
“Our main agenda when we paid him a courtesy call was to discuss on the diesel issue affecting 371 schools using generators to the point where there were quite a number of teachers thinking of taking leave.
“But he ( Maszlee) has assured that there will be no interruption of diesel supply for these 371 schools until the end of the year,” he told a press conference after witnessing the exchange of memorandum of understanding ( MoU) between Sarawak Skills Development Centre ( PPKS) and 33 secondary schools from Kuching, Samarahan and Serian divisions at PPKS auditorium here yesterday.
He also pointed out that the schools’ dependence on generators for electricity would soon be a thing of the past as plans are underway to connect these schools to the state’s power grid.
“The state Education Department has identified these schools, many of which are situated very near the grid and I have also written to then Education Minister ( Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid) last year and he agreed that 80 schools should be connected to the grid due to their location.
“Unfortunately, they have not given any allocation for this purpose and that is why I went to meet the current Education Minister and hopefully he will give us the allocation so that we can come up with this final solution for these schools,” he said.
Apart from that, Manyin said his ministry will continue to follow up with its federal counterpart on the issue concerning the state’s dilapidated schools including the RM1-billion allocation agreed by the previous federal government for the dilapidated schools.
“We had a meeting with then Deputy Prime Minister ( Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi) and then Education Minister on the dilapidated schools in July last year and they agreed to give RM1 billion that was approved under last year’s budget.
“But this has not been implemented and I have brought this up to Dr Maszlee during the courtesy call last Friday.”
According to him, the consensus reached in last year’s meeting was that the funds must be distributed to the state after which the Sarawak government will utilise the funds to repair the dilapidated schools.
“In order for us to address this issue, I will have to discuss further with the Education Minister,” he remarked.
He also revealed that other issues discussed during the meeting included allocation for treated water supply at 428 affected schools; suggestions to merge some small schools in the state to improve academic results and reduce cost of maintenance as well as looking into a long-term solution to rebuild or relocate schools that are situated near the riverbanks so that they are not affected by flood every year.
“We have identified the schools and will be working out the details with the Ministry of Education.
“Hopefully, we can get this done within this year. We cannot wait too long because it has been long overdue,” he stressed.
Earlier, Manyin witnessed the exchange of the MoU which will pave the way for a host of joint initiatives aimed at enhancing the teaching and learning landscape at the secondary schools.
Also present were PPKS chairman Tan Sri Datuk Amar Abdul Aziz Husain, PPKS executive director Hallman Sabri and PPKS Management Council secretary Dato Maznah Dasmi.