21 mission schools will be groping in the dark starting April unless …

Uggah (sixth from left) chairing the meeting with officials from the state Education Department.

KUCHING, Jan 3: Twenty-one rural mission schools are in need of diesel from April until December this year for their generator sets.

Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas today said he was told of the situation in a meeting with officials from the Education Department here today.

Currently, the federal government is providing them with diesel supply up to March.

Thus, he urged the Education Department to write to the Education Ministry to request for the supply to be continued until the end of the year.

“If by March there is no response, the state government will have to step in. We cannot allow the students and teachers to suffer and for classes to be interrupted,” he emphasised.

“We will have to find a solution to help the schools before the end of March.”

Uggah chaired the meeting as he is also in charge of Unit for Other Religions (Unifor), which looks into the interests as well as to solve problems faced by other religions besides Islam in the state.

He hoped the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Research could help to link 17 of these schools to the state grid before March as it had the money for the purpose.

“Then we still have four more schools to help,” he added.

Also present were Deputy State Secretary Datuk Jaul Samion, Unifor director Datuk Dr Ngenang Janggu as well as representatives from Sarawak Energy Bhd, Ministry of Education, Science And Technological Research and from Christian faiths running the schools. — DayakDaily