KUCHING, July 9 — The lack of close supervision by the federal Education Ministry could be the reason for the delay in fixing 66 dilapidated schools in the state, Works Minister Baru Bian said today.

He said these schools were entrusted to the ministry’s various agencies, but faced problems in completing the upgrading work on schedule.

"I was told the problems have little to do with the use of Industrialised Building System (IBS), but more do to with lack of supervision by the Education Ministry,” he explained at a press conference after attending a briefing at the state JKR headquarters.

Baru noted that the state Works Department (JKR) has done an excellent job in fixing 49 out of 50 dilapidated schools in the state.

"The upgrading work on the remaining one school will be completed next month,” he said.

Baru said another 210 dilapidated schools in Sarawak will be upgraded under the second phase of rehabilitation and upgrading of school programme.

He said it is up to the Education Ministry to award contracts to fix these schools, including to the state JKR.

Research by the state Ministry of Science, Education and Technology has identified 1,020 dilapidated schools in Sarawak, including describing 415 as critically dilapidated.

The state government had allocated RM1 billion to upgrade these schools, mostly in the rural areas.