THE proposal to establish a centralised school by merging SK Nangga Jagau, SK Nangga Nirok and SK Nangga Balingiau needs the agreement and support of the local community.
Deputy Minister of Education, Innovation, and Talent Development Datuk Dr Annuar Rapa’ee said a centralised school is the best solution as these schools have low student enrolment.
“SK Nangga Jagau has 26 students whereas SK Nangga Dirok has 28 students and SK Nangga Balingiau has 88 students which means these schools come under the low enrolment category. Even if you were to total up all the students, it would still be below 150 students.
“The best solution is to merge these schools and build a centralised school for the community in this area,” he said.
He was replying to Ngemah assemblyman Anyi Jana during question time on the third day of the 19th State Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting today.
However, Dr Annuar said the policy of the Ministry of Education is based on per student and per capita grant which will not address the problem.
He said the smaller the number of students, the lesser the contribution or allocation that will be given thus it is a big disadvantage for low enrolment schools.
“Previously, we do have the initiative to merge these schools – keeping in mind that closing any of the schools has to be agreed by the community. Thus, we would like to urge the elected local representative to convince the people the best solution is to merge the three schools.
“This will provide a better environment for the teachers to teach and for students to have a conducive as well as competitive environment, especially in terms of curriculum activities,” he said.
On the issue of the three schools being often affected by floods, Dr Annuar urged the elected local representative to work together with the ministry to identify a suitable site for relocation.
“These schools are frequently affected by flooding as they are situated at the riverbank and low-laying area. They were built along the riverbank during colonial times when river was the main mode of transportation.
“The State Education Department has proposed to relocate these schools to a better area, however the new site was not very suitable.
“Once again, I would like to urge the elected local representative to work together with us to find a better place to situate these schools to address the issue of flooding,” he added.
