Sabah: Rehabilitation of run-down schools to complete by 2020

KOTA KINABALU: The rehabilitation project involving 22 run-down schools in Sabah at a cost of RM88 million is expected to be fully completed by mid-2020.

State Education and Innovation Minister Datuk Dr Yusof Yacob said priority would be given to three schools that needed urgent restoration.

“The three schools are Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Sungai-Sungai in Beluran, SK Nibang, Pitas and SK Tiong Widu in Tambunan,” he told reporters here yesterday, after chairing a meeting on the first phase of the project.

He said the three schools would be restored based on the industrialised building system (IBS) at a cost of RM10 million.

“As for the other 19 schools, the project would begin early next year at a cost of RM78 million,” he said, adding that all 22 schools had been categorised as unsafe for occupation and slated for rehabilitation according to the allocation approved this year.

Yusof said the project would be monitored fully by both the federal and state Education ministries with the cooperation of the Public Works Department to ensure prompt completion. Aside from the 22, a number of schools in the state had also been categorised as unsafe, but the restoration could only commence next year in stages or at the latest, in the 12th Malaysia Plan, he said.

Meanwhile, he said RM15 million had also been allocated for basic infrastructure maintenance projects such as wiring and sewage system at all schools statewide.