School PTA upset over 'failed promise'
Published on: Friday, March 06, 2015
Ranau: The Parents and Teachers Association (PTA) of SMK Kundasang is upset that the promise by the State and Federal education authorities to build a school building at Kg Mesilau, Kundasang has yet to materialise.Its Chairman Japiril Suhaimin said the students at the now abandoned school were ordered to relocate temporarily to SMK Agama (Lama) in January, 2013 despite objections from the parents.He said the Ministry of Education had previously provided bus service for the students to go to SMK Agama in Ranau and promised that construction of the new school would commence in March 2013 and completed within a year at a cost of RM43 million.
ADVERTISEMENT
He said the ministry said the students must relocate to SMK Agama so that construction of the new school in Mesilau could be expedited."However, in March last year, State Education Director Datuk Jame Allip said tenders would be called soon and that construction will start in July the same year."Deputy Education Minister Datuk Mary Yap was with the Director when the latter made the announcement," he said.But the Director, he said, was reported as saying on Tuesday that the new SMK Kundasang would probably be delayed.
ADVERTISEMENT
"The latest statement by the Director is confusing the parents and students."After two years, an expert suddenly found that the site (for the new building) is not suitable," he said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Japiril said the education authorities must come up with a concrete explanation as to how long the students and parents must wait before the new SMK Kundasang is completed.To make matters more complicated, the bus service providers stopped services on March 11 this year after giving the excuse that the allocation for their services has been stopped."So, the students were asked to apply to stay in the school dormitories," he said.But when the students went to the hostel, they were only provided with a mattress and pillow each."There were no beds, cupboards and the water supply is simply inadequate," he said.And because there were no beds and cupboards, the mattresses were simply placed on the cement floor, he said.Japiril said SMK Kundasang status is just a regular school and not a full-boarding school.It is for this reason, he said, that the students refuse to stay in the dormitories.So, the parents have to ferry their children to SMK Agama daily using their own vehicles, he said.For parents who do not have any vehicles, they have to pay for public transportation, he said.The cost that each set of parents have to fork out every month for the public transportation is about RM160."Can you imagine how difficult it would be for middle-income earning parents who have two or three children studying in the school," he said.To this, Japiril said the PTA came up with three important resolutions during its meeting on March 3 that was attended by some 200 parents.He said the resolutions are:i. The Ministry of Education must provide back the bus service until the new SMK Kundasang is completed;ii. The original site of the SMK Kundasang is used to build the new school building; andiii. The government should strive to preserve the abandoned school building using high engineering technology and to utilise the RM43 million for this purpose.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
Daily Express Malaysia
