KUCHING: Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina (SJKC) Tapah in Siburan is still in need of RM2 million to finish the construction of its new classroom building.
Deputy Premier Datuk Seri Dr Sim Kui Hian said the school under the purview of the Ministry of Education (MOE) needed a new building to replace the existing old wooden building, which has reached the age of 58 years.
He said the project, which started in January 2022, is estimated to cost RM5 million.
“Although it is a school under the federal government, the Sarawak government, through the Minister of Education, Innovation, and Talent Development Sarawak, Datuk Roland Sagah, has previously allocated RM2 million for the project.
“The problem now is that the school does not have enough funds to complete the project,” he told reporters after receiving a courtesy call from the school’s management board members at his office in Wisma Bapa Malaysia here yesterday (March 31).
Dr Sim added that thus far, the school board has managed to raise RM3.2 million for the project.
SJKC Tapah was established in 1965 and is located in KM35, Jalan Kuching-Serian.
The school currently has an enrolment of 369 students, 29 teachers, and five non-teaching staff.
The two blocks of wooden school buildings have reached the age of 58 years and have had to make do with ageing and severely damaged wooden walls, roof, guttering, drainage, and cracking floors that are no longer usable or safe.
Due to this critical situation, the parent-teacher association and the school’s management board have been planning to build a new reinforced concrete block of a classroom building to replace the unsafe and severely damaged wooden school buildings since 2015.
After years of planning and raising funds, the new school building construction got underway in January 2022 and is expected to be completed by June 2023.
Due to the unexpected sharp increase in construction costs after the pandemic COVID-19, the school faces a shortage of RM2 million to complete the whole project, including the basic facilities needed by the students and teachers such as multimedia facilities, desks and chairs in the classroom, air conditioner units, and others.
Thus, the whole project needs a fund of RM5 million.
Also present were Yayasan Sarawak’s board of trustees and Kuching Chung Hua Middle School Numbers 1, 3, and 4 Board of Management Committee chairman Datuk Richard Wee and Association of Aided Chinese Primary Schools Kuching, Samarahan and Serian Divisions president Datuk Jonathan Chai.
