By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, March 10: There will be no more long-winded processes to implement projects or deliver assistance to schools in Sarawak following the delegation of authority from the Education Ministry (MoE) to Sarawak Education Director.
According to a statement, Deputy Premier of Sarawak Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas expressed his delight over the fact that the Sarawak Education Director can now approve school projects funded by the Sarawak government or any other party besides the federal government.
He noted that previously, the authority to approve projects even though they are funded by the Sarawak government, lay with MoE in Putrajaya.
He cited a case where he had donated several air conditioner units for a school hall at the request of the school’s principal.
However, after the air conditioners were delivered, they had to be kept in the school’s storeroom for quite some time and could not be installed pending MoE’s approval.
“Therefore, I am very happy with the (delegation of power) as we are all very ready to help our schools. This is because we view education as absolutely important for our future generation to deal with future challenges well.
“Now in our case too, we have some fund from the development allocation given to the Betong Division Development Agency (BDDA) and it can be used to help our schools especially for those urgent requests,” he said when officiating at a ‘Back To School’ programme in Spaoh today.
The delegation of power was among the matters decided upon during a Joint Action Committee Meeting on Education Development for Sarawak chaired by Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek in Kuching on Feb 22.
At the same time, Uggah and Betong MP Dr Richard Rapu had visited SK Nanga Tiga and a few longhouses here which were affected by soil erosion after consecutive days of heavy rain recently.
At SK Nanga Tiga, its boarding house by the Batang Lupar is being affected by bank erosion, forcing the school to find an alternative replacement building on higher ground. — DayakDaily
