KUCHING: The RM1 billion special fund under the 11th Malaysia Plan Budget to rebuild 210 critically dilapidated schools over a period of two years was agreed to in the National Economic Council meeting held on October 9, 2017.
This was pointed out yesterday by the Minister of Education, Science and Technological Research, Dato Sri Michael Manyin Jawong during his winding up speech in the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting at Petra Jaya here.
Manyin said RM500 million of the RM1 billion special fund was to be spent this year and another RM500 million next year. However, the fund was not enough to rebuild the dilapidated schools in the state.
“So far, the Federal Ministry of Education has awarded a contract to repair 116 schools. 50 of the schools will be repaired by the state Public Works Department (JKR) and 66 will be taken care of by the Federal Ministry of Education. The total amount of the contract is RM419.05 million,
“Following the decision made during the presentation to the National Economic Council on October 9, 2017, that amount should not be part of the RM1 billion approved.
“The 116 schools were supposed to be part of the approved amount under the 11th Malaysia Plan.
“The above implementation is not following the state’s priority list of critically dilapidated schools. In short, the utilisation of the RM500 million allocation is not in accordance with what was agreed to during the National Economic Council meeting,
“It was pointed out during a meeting chaired by Chief Minister on April 17, 2018 that the amount of RM419.05 million should not utilise the special allocation of RM1 billion. We sincerely hope that the Pakatan Harapan government will honour the decision made then in the interest of education of our young children,
“I have always emphasised that education should not be politicised at the expense of our children’s future. While addressing the issue of dilapidated schools, we must also resolve the issue of schools frequently affected by floods,” he stressed.
Manyin pointed out that on average, about 80 schools in Sarawak were prone to flooding. He said early this year, 78 schools were badly affected by floods. The damages caused by floods were estimated at RM16.1 million.
“The damages included furniture, ICT equipment, non-ICT equipment, electrical wiring and buildings. The state government contributed RM4 million to help cover the schools’ damages in addition to the allocation from the federal government.
“This is an immediate measure to ensure that the schools’ operations are not disrupted. There is a need for a long term solution, and that is to relocate the schools to higher grounds. Some of these schools are low-enrolment schools and dilapidated schools. We indicated during our recent meeting with the new Minister of Education, Dr. Maszlee Malik that the relocation of these schools would be our priority,” he said.
As reported in the last DUN sitting, 1,020 out of 1,454 schools in the state are in dilapidated condition.
415 are categorised as critically dilapidated. 205 of the 415 dilapidated schools have been approved for rebuilding or upgrading under the 11th Malaysia Plan.
