THE Education Ministry has allocated RM2.7 billion for the next two years to repair the 1,020 dilapidated schools in the state.

Education Minister Maszlee Malik, who is on a two-day working visit to the state, told journalists at his media conference in Kuching today that his ministry has RM100 million from now till the end of this year to fix the most “critically dilapidated” schools.

He had earlier paid a courtesy call on Sarawak Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg at his office at the state legislative assembly building.

The state, the largest in Malaysia in size, has 1,454 schools, of which 70% have been categorised as dilapidated. Forty percent of the 1,020 schools are deemed to be “critically dilapidated”.

The RM100 million Maszlee announced is a big increase of the RM35.74 million he announced in parliament recently as a “special allocation” to “urgently fix 853 dilapidated schools this year”.

That amount of the special allocation drew derision from Sarawak state leaders who said it was “paltry” and “just a trickle” of the RM4 to RM5 billion needed for complete rehabilitation.

“When we say critically dilapidated, it means it cannot be repaired. They can only be rebuilt,” state Minister for Education, Science and Technological Research Michael Manyin told the state assembly in July.

When the then Barisan Nasional federal government allocated RM1 billion for the repair of Sarawak schools in this year’s budget, Manyin had also dismissed it as “just not enough”.

Maszlee said he shed tears at seeing the condition of the school building and the teachers’ quarters when he visited three schools in Simunjan and Sadong Jaya – two districts between 84km and 90km from Kuching.

“After seeing those dilapidated schools yesterday, I could not stop crying until this morning,” he said. – September 7, 2018.