KUCHING: The state’s Ministry of Educat ion, Sc ience and Technological Research and the State Education Department will be totally in-charge of building and renovation of dilapidated schools that are having problem of less enrolment in the State, its Minister Dato’ Sri Michael Manyin Jawong said yesterday. He said the last meeting with Public Works Department (JKR) was held on Tuesday and the projects will be implemented next year.
“We will provide the scope and JKR will estimate and all the designs later on. So we will start with those areas where the parents and the Ybs (people’s representatives) have already agreed. We want to have at least one school for every rural constituency if possible to start with,” he told the media after officiating at the closing of the First Sarawak English Language Education Symposium entitled ‘Connecting the Dots: Curriulum, Classroom & Community’ at Pullman Hotel Kuching here yesterday.
“So we were asking JKR yesterday’ all the architects and the quality surveyors were there and we asked them to come up after we have provided them with the scope and came up with design and come up with the costing.
“So the new buildings that we are coming up with namely the RM1 billion that we are going to use, the Education Department together with my ministry will be totally in-charge, whether it is going to open tender or what we will be the one incharge, “ he said. Manyin also assured: “It will be very transparent because we want to utilise the amount of money and get benefit from that.
“So what was mentioned in the paper today is that a lot were done by the other side and there was no transparency and all this and that. “There was already a meeting on 9 October with the federal side and EPU (Economic Planning Unit) and the MOF (Ministry of Finance) all agreed that we spend RM1 billion and the state has the money and we will totally be in control,” he said.
