KUCHING: Politics will be put aside when any issue on education surfaces, said Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik.
“As I have mentioned before, my ministry emphasises a lot on education and making sure that the children and teachers get the proper and quality infrastructure.
“I have told Michael Manyin this, ‘we go above politics’. If there is any education issue, politics will be put aside and the focus will be on the importance of education, children and teachers,” he told reporters during a visit to a new classroom block at SMK Sungai Tapang, Kota Sentosa.
He was accompanied by Education, Science, Technological Research Minister Datuk Seri Michael Manyin Jawong and SMK Sungai Tapang principal Bekon Jenet.
Maszlee explained, “This block that consists of 24 classrooms is part of the Eleventh Malaysia Plan (RMK 11). The project cost is RM34.8 million and it is 97.9 percent completed.
“It only took 18 months to do so and will be expected to be fully completed by November. This is also part of the government’s commitment in ensuring that all projects are completed and there will not be any ‘sick projects’ left.”
He added that when he assumed the post of Education Minister, there were a lot of ‘sick projects’ that were put aside by the Barisan Nasional (BN) government.
“The way to handle this is to verify any projects with the probability of being sick and intervene immediately.
“This will ensure the restoration of dilapidated schools, mainly focused in Sarawak, will be carried out smoothly,” said Maszlee.
According to him, the Ministry of Education (MOE) has identified 32 schools for the dilapidated school restoration with the allocation of RM100 million given this year.
The restoration work is also expected to be completed on December 16 this year.
“We are working closely with the Public Works Department (JKR) to ensure the quality of the projects. We do not just want them to be completed by the scheduled date but we also the quality and specs of the schools to be fulfilled.
“Regarding the loan payment of RM1 billion by the state government to the federal government, RM350 million is used in the first phase to restore 37 dilapidated schools.
“Seven of these school projects are already in the tender process while the remaining will be tendered this coming December,” stated the minister.
Maszlee further informed that the implementation was done by three parties, namely JKR, MOE and the Ministry of Finance (MOF). The state government will assist them to monitor the progress of the projects.
