Julau MP dreams of seeing all rural schools connected with 24-hr electricity
KUCHING: A Sarawakian parliamentarian has expressed his wish for all rural schools in Sarawak to have 24- hour electricity supply, instead of some of them having to rely on diesel- fuelled generator sets (gensets).
In his remarks, Julau MP Larry Sng said it was puzzling to see that a number of schools have yet to enjoy round-the- clock power supply, despite their close proximity to the main electricity grid.
He points out that in his constituency alone, there are 29 schools still relying on gensets – 22 of them located near the main electricity grid, which is about 10 metres away.
“RM20,000 is the monthly cost to supply fuel to one school, not including other related costs like operations and maintenance. I hope the Ministry of Education would look into this matter more seriously.
“It would be cheaper for the government in the long run to have these 29 schools in Julau connected with the main electricity grid, rather than using the diesel- powered gensets,” he said when contacted yesterday.
Sng said he estimated the cost to connect a school to the main grid is RM200,000 inclusive of the wiring and system installation costs.
Following the installation, the average electricity bill per month should only be around RM500, he added.
Sng said he had raised the issue before federal Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik in Parliament on July 16. The minister responded by saying that there was a long-term plan to resolve the issue.
Not satisfied with such response, Sng said he approached the federal deputy Education Minister, Teo Nie Ching on Thursday, but the response from her was also less than satisfactory.
Meanwhile on the fire tragedy that struck a primary school in Batu Bungan on Wednesday and killed a teacher there, Sng expressed his hope that the government would direct Sarawak’s power distribution company, Syarikat Sesco Bhd, to review old electrical wiring systems at schools across Sarawak as part of its fire prevention programme.