Sarawak to go ahead with merging of low-enrolment schools

SARAWAK government is looking forward to working together with the new federal government to implement the plan of merging low enrolment schools, because education is an important agenda for Sarawak.

Assistant Minister of Education and Technological Research Dr Annuar Rapaee has raised his concerns at the august House on whether the plan to merge low-enrollment schools in Sarawak would proceed now that Pakatan Harapan ( PH) is the ruling government.

“It is interesting to take note that Minister of Works Baru Bian, had during a press conferences, put emphasis on three things - hospitals, roads and schools.”

Dr Annuar was responding to a question from Paulus Palu Gumbang ( PBB- Batu Danau) on the development of the plan to merge four schools in the Batu Danau area.

He said the number of (primary) schools to be merged in Sarawak is 357 schools, which are defined as schools with less than 300 pupils.

“There are 1,404 primary and secondary schools in Sarawak. From the figure 1,264 are primary schools and 849 of them are ‘lowenrollment’ schools.

“It has been our aspiration to merge lowenrollment schools since the setting- up of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology Research.”

Merging schools, he added, was the most cost effective approach because it would allow the pooling of resources, presence of specialised teachers, and a centralised infrastructure that could be shared among the pupils.