SARAWAK has given its approval for the formation of a committee to look after its neglected mission schools.

The committee would be parked under the state’s Unit for Other Religions (Unifor), which falls under the Chief Minister’s Office.

Deputy Chief Minister Douglas Uggah said he has directed Unifor to meet with representatives of the Catholic, Anglican and Methodist churches who run a number of schools throughout the state, to discuss the formation.

Uggah said this when speaking at a ceremony to hand over RM1.5 million to the Anglican Church in Kuching for the construction of the diocese’s House of Epiphany.

The money was to top up Unifor’s initial grant.

The cream of Sarawak’s educated were once the product of mission schools, including most of its chief ministers.

Uggah said mission schools had, in the past, played a very important role in the state’s education, and would continue to do so in the present and in future.

Last week, Sarawak Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg – an old boy of St Joseph’s Catholic school – had similarly approved the setting up of a committee to look after the welfare of Chinese schools in the state.

That committee is being headed by State Local Government and Housing Minister Dr Sim Kui Hian.

The contract to construct the RM10 million House of Epiphany on the compound of the St Thomas’ Cathedral has been awarded to Leya Construction. – September 29, 2020.