KUCHING, Nov 3 — Sarawak needs an allocation of at least RM3 billion either for rebuilding or fixing dilapidated 904 schools, the majority of which are in rural areas, state Education, Science and Technological Research Minister Datuk Seri Michael Manyin said today.

He said 116 dilapidated schools have already been repaired and upgraded during the previous Barisan Nasional government.

"The allocation of RM100 million announced by Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng in his budget speech yesterday for dilapidated schools is simply nothing,” Manyin told reporters after attending Parti Pesaka Bumiputra Bersatu (PBB) supreme council meeting here.

He said the allocation is not for Sarawak alone, but for the whole of Malaysia.

"From that allocation, we may be getting RM5 million or RM10 million, we don’t know yet,” he said.

Manyin said some of the schools will have to be relocated as they are close to the roadside, explaining why Sarawak needs to have more allocation for school building projects.

On the RM60 billion allocated to the federal Education Ministry under the Budget, he said there is no mention how it is going to be distributed.

"We don’t even know how it is going to be spent and for what purpose,” he added.

Manyin said the state government might have to resort to its reserves to fix dilapidated schools and to build new ones.

"But resorting to the state fund is not fair to us because education is under the purview of the federal government, and on top of that, you and I are also paying taxes to the federal government,” he said.

He lamented that Sarawak contributed 15 per cent of the total tax collection to the country, but only received about 1.4 per cent of the total development expenditure this year.