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KUCHING, April 23 ― Ba’Kelalan state assemblyman Baru Bian today asked the Ministry of Education to take a look at SK Long Sukang in Lawas district which has remained uncompleted even after 12 years.
He said Senior Education Minister Datuk Radzi Jidin should take a personal interest in the matter as the people of Long Sukang have long been waiting for their school to be completed.
“If the problem of waterlogging and soil movement cannot be solved, then the ministry should consider demolishing the incomplete structure and building a new one on higher dry ground,” Baru said in a statement.
He said he was recently passing through Long Sukang village when his attention was drawn to the unfinished or abandoned school building.
He said he was told by some of the villagers that they have no idea what is going on nor what the status of the building is.
“I have brought up this matter numerous times in Sarawak State Assembly, but until today, nothing has been done at the site,” he said.
He recalled that the state Minister of Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development Datuk Sri Fatimah Abdullah, who was then in charge of education in Sarawak, paid a visit to the school in April 2016 where it was announced that the project, which was listed under Rolling Plan One of the 11th Malaysia Plan, would be re-tendered.
He added when answering his question in the State Assembly in November 2017 Assistant Minister of Education, Science, and Technological Research Dr Annuar Rapee had said that an additional RM19 million had been approved to complete the remaining 30 per cent of the project.
“This RM25 million project was approved and commenced in 2009 under the 9th Malaysia Plan, and we are now at the 12th Malaysia Plan in 2021,” he said, adding that the school should not take 12 years to build.