KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 2 ― The Sarawak government can’t afford to wait for Putrajaya and will be dipping into state funds to fix its dilapidated rural schools, Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri James Masing has disclosed.
It was previously reported that Malaysia’s largest state has some 190 secondary schools and 1,264 primary schools, about 70 per cent of which were run down and in urgent need of repairs.
“We will build and repair the schools using the state funds first and bill the federal government later. We cannot afford to wait for the federal funds to solve this problem,” Masing was quoted by The Borneo Post as saying in its report today.
The Sarawak minister said the state government will use money channelled from an increase in its timber fees for the state’s educational needs, adding that the state education fund now stood at about RM300 million from RM9 million a year.
Masing also admitted that he had been wrong previously to accuse the federal government of discriminating against Sarawak on the low numbers of native teachers.
“I used to think that there was discrimination against Sarawakians who applied to enter teachers training colleges but (now) I have to accept the ‘bitter truth’ ― that we do not have enough applicants who are qualified to enter the teachers college.”
