Kulai MP Teo Nie Ching speaks during a press conference in Kuala Lumpur May 3, 2021. — Picture by Firdaus Latif
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 30 — The Education Ministry’s plan to financially assist schools affected by severe floods should already be in place, Teo Nie Ching said today when pointing out that the 2022 school year was already almost upon the country.
The Kulai MP said that while Senior Education Minister Datuk Radzi Jidin and his deputy have visited some of the schools affected, there still was no announcement on the assistance available to the worrying number of national and vernacular schools damaged.
“Certainly, the Education Ministry should act quickly to assist the schools in assessing the damage.
“But I also wish to urge the ministry to urgently channel aid to any school that may need this, seeing as it is only days until the start of the 2022 school year,” she said in a statement.
The former deputy education minister said this was especially pressing for vernacular schools as there was still an unspent allocation of RM7.98 million this year, before suggesting SJKT Pulau Carey Barat, SJKT Dengkil, SJKT Taman Permata, and SJKT Ladang Selangor River as those in urgent need.
She said these schools, among others, have been forced to solicit assistance from ordinary Malaysians but Teo disagreed that they should be made to bear additional burden when they were likely to have also suffered from the floods.
Over 2,200 people remain in temporary shelters across Selangor today, nearly two weeks since unprecedented rainfall caused some of the worst floods to have ever swept the state.
Since then, the flood disaster has spread to other parts of the peninsula, with Pahang currently the hardest hit state.
Heavy and sustained rainfall has also been forecast to hit the east coast states on the peninsula from today until the new year, which will likely cause floods in those areas.