KUCHING, July 11: Fifty-six (or 85 per cent) of the 66 dilapidated schools that are supposed to be repaired by the Education Ministry are behind schedule. The rest are either ahead or on schedule.
As for the 50 dilapidated schools that are supposed to be repaired by the Works Ministry, which has entrusted the responsibility to the state Public Works Department (JKR), 44 are either ahead or on schedule, while six are experiencing delays.
Assistant Minister of Education, Science and Technology Development Dr Annuar Rapaee said, on a whole, the state JKR had done “not too bad”, much better than the Education Ministry.
Thus, he opined that the Education Ministry should entrust the state Education Department to handle this initiative to better “see and monitor” their progress.
Dr Annuar (GPS-Nangka) said there were 1,404 schools in the state, and out of this, 1,200 were classified as dilapidated.
He told the august House today that of the 1,200 dilapidated schools, 450 were in very bad shape.
“Last year, the Education Ministry approved RM419 million for the repair and upgrading of 116 of these 450 schools,” he told Aidel Lariwoo (GPS-Sadong Jaya) during question-and-answer time at the State Legislative Assembly.
Aidel had also wanted to know if the RM419 million was included in the RM1 billion that the former Barisan Nasional government approved last year in the national budget for the repair and upgrading of dilapidated schools in the state. He wondered if the Pakatan Harapan (PH) federal government would honour this RM1 billion pledge.
To that, Dr Annuar said he was uncertain about this matter as PH had just taken over Putrajaya.
In any case, he said RM1 billion was not enough to repair all the dilapidated schools in the state. The amount required is around RM4 billion to RM5 billion.
However, Dr Annuar said he did not have much hope for the PH government as it seemed to have difficulties even to fulfil its 100-day manifesto. — DayakDaily
