KUCHING: Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) Women has questioned whether Pakatan Harapan (PH) Sarawak could ensure that schools in the state would be well taken care of without assistance from Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) elected representatives.
“Will they (Sarawak PH reps) visit, channel funds and report about issues facing the over 1,600 schools, stretching from Lundu to Lawas,” asked its chief Kho Teck Wan.
Commenting on the ban imposed by the Education Ministry on GPS elected representatives to visiting government and government-added schools, she said the move would only serve to deprive the schools of much-needed funds.
Most of the government schools are currently located in areas under the care of the respective GPS assemblymen and assemblywomen.
She said the victims of such restriction would be the school children and their administrators.
Kho said traditionally most schools especially in the rural areas were receiving some form of funding from the local elected representatives, either through their minor rural projects allocation or Rural Transformation Programme (RTP) funds.
She therefore urged the federal government to look beyond their own self-interest agenda and put politics aside pertaining to school funding and visitation.
“With all the heated discussions around the subject of schools, I would like to know how the Ministry of Education assesses the impacts of their decisions on the schools’ administration and the students.
“In my humble opinion there are no winners when education becomes the subject of political agenda,” she said.
