KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 30 — Residents of the remote area of Upper Moyog today urged the federal government to fulfil its promise to build a secondary school for their children, whom they claim must now travel long distances just to progress beyond primary education.
The Upper Moyog Youth Movement said students have no choice but to wake up at 4.30am daily to get ready for the bus to the nearest secondary schools at least 20km away, and routinely reach home after 7pm due to the distance travelled.
“It costs RM8 to RM10 a day in transportation for each student. The underprivileged in the area don’t get the opportunity to further their education,” the movement’s chairman, Jasran Elik, said when met outside Parliament here.
“Some of them are only able to finish primary six,” he added, after meeting Penampang MP Darell Leiking to hand over a memorandum on their request addressed to Education Minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid.
Jasran said there are currently over 2,000 children in the area – which borders Sabah’s interior district of Tambunan – who are attending primary school and half of them are expected to graduate to secondary school next year.
“We remember the prime minister’s promise in 2012 to build a secondary school in our area... we really need one to uplift the local community, especially our youths,” the 24-year-old said, adding that the area has a population of some 10,000 predominantly Kadazandusun.
Najib had reportedly said in late 2012 that a secondary school would be built under Budget 2013 in Kg Kipovo in the Upper Moyog area, at the request of the-then Penampang MP Tan Sri Bernard G. Dompok.
