KUCHING, Oct 7: Education, Science and Technological Research Minister Dato Sri Michael Manyin says since Pakatan Harapan took over in May, the federal government had done nothing to the dilapidated schools in Sarawak.
Responding to Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik saying that the federal government can repair 50 per cent of all dilapidated schools across Malaysia by next year, Manyin described it as “wishful thinking”.
Citing the example of Sarawak, he said the total number of dilapidated schools in Sarawak amounted to 1,020 while those deemed critical number 425, which needed immediate action.
According to his calculation, he said Sarawak needs at least RM5 billion to repair and rebuild the dilapidated schools, which meant the federal government will have to allocate RM2.5 billion just to upgrade the run-down schools in Sarawak next year.
He thus hoped there will be such allocation for the purpose come November when Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad tables the national budget.
Manyin told the media this after officiating at the Junior Innovate Sarawak Finals 2018 and NextSparks Competition held at Saradise Innovation Space here yesterday.
According to Manyin, since Pakatan Harapan government took over, it has not contributed in repairing any schools in Sarawak.
“Since May, when Pakatan Harapan took over, they have not done anything to the dilapidated schools in Sarawak,” said Manyin.
He said whatever that was accomplished, was due to the effort of the previous government.
Since February this year, there were 116 upgrading projects using Industrialised Building System (IBS) given out and out of the 116 schools, 50 were handled by Sarawak Works Department (Sarawak JKR) while the rest by the Education Ministry.
Manyin said Sarawak JKR had completed all the projects while only 16 under the Education Ministry were completed.
The rest of the 50 upgrading projects under the Education Ministry, Manyin claimed were “sick projects”.
Maszlee had said that since PH took over the federal government, more than 10 per cent of dilapidated schools had been repaired.
“As of 2018, we have repaired 394 schools which exceeded the target of 10 per cent of schools, since we took over the government.
“Next year, we hope to achieve 50 per cent,” Maszlee told the media after launching the “Johor Harapan” free bus service in Simpang Renggam yesterday. — DayakDaily
