SEMPORNA: Sabah continues to struggle with the issue of school buildings in poor or dilapidated condition and still has wooden structures that need to be urgently replaced with concrete.
Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan) President Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal said it is more worrying when primary and secondary school hostels in rural areas still experience the same issue with their physical infrastructure.
He said this issue needs to be resolved immediately to ensure that the structural condition of the school building and student dormitory is safe for long-term use.
“The results of the visit to several areas in the interior of Sabah give an impression of the infrastructure facilities of primary and secondary schools still having wooden and outdated structures that need to be replaced with concrete as soon as possible.
“The closest, for example, in Kota Belud and Tuaran, is that the building structure is still in the form of boards, while the basic structure needs to be upgraded urgently.
“It is also necessary to look at the facilities for improving the teaching staff; as a result of my visit to several other areas of teachers’ homes, attention should also be paid to provide them with comfort,” he said when officiating the open day of the Semporna District Education Office here today.
Mohd Shafie, the Semporna Member of Parliament, said the Ministry of Education needs to have a thorough plan to upgrade, carry out renovations, and rebuild replacement buildings for identified poor schools.
“It is necessary for us to increase our efforts, not only to repair the facilities of the physical infrastructure, but much more important is how the efforts to upgrade the poor schools in Sabah need to be improved immediately,” he said.
Previously, Deputy Chief Minister of Sabah, Datuk Shahelmey Yahya, said that more than half of the 1,292 primary and secondary schools in Sabah are currently reported to be facing the problem of poor or dilapidated buildings.
He said the statistics were based on the Sabah Education Department’s latest records last year.
