S’kan students get bus aid, hostel beds fixed
Published on: Saturday, July 04, 2020
By: Winnie Kasmir
Taren (second left) and Nor Aslam (left) visiting one of the students’ home.
TONGOD: State Education Department will lend its Department’s bus to the Tongod Education Office to be used as transport for students of Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) Entilibon.State Education Director, Dr. Mistirine Radin said the bus will be taken by Tongod Education Office end of this week and can be used by next week to transport students.ADVERTISEMENT
She was commenting on the report claiming that some students will likely to endure 3.6 kilometres (to and fro) walking each day after private van will terminate its service next week following most students cannot afford to pay the van’s fare.
Meanwhile, according to a parent, the problem caused due to the hostel’s location. It is located 1.8 kilometres from the school, causing students to spend money or walk to school because they could not afford the transportation fare.
"The van driver told us that many students or parents could not afford the fare, but they were still allowed to board the van because of the empathy of the driver.
"But due to losses mainly to bear the cost of fuel every day, the van driver is no longer able to send the students, so that means all boarding students will walk 3.6 kilometres a day," he said.
Taren (centre) and Nor Aslam with student trying out the repaired bed.
ADVERTISEMENT It is understood that there are about 40 boarding students who are currently candidates for Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) and Sijil Tinggi Pelajaran Malaysia (STPM). However, if the school becomes fully operational by mid-July, the number will increase to over 300.
If no alternative action is taken to provide student transportation, this means that all of them have to walk and can cause road safety issues.
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The RM2 for transportation fees had become a burden for most of these rural students.
Mistirine also said the construction of a new hostel is not under the State Education Department and she is still waiting for the latest information from MOE Education Development Division (Sabah Branch).
Meanwhile, students staying at the SMK Beluran hostel can rest better after the Sandakan Indian Association (SIA) fulfilled its promise to help repair the many damaged bed frames that were previously not useable.
“Thanks to the efforts of our member Sagaran Letchmanan, we have been able to repair 85 bed frames for the school hostel,” said SIA President Taren Sunil Manoharan.
Earlier this year, in March, the SIA President and fellow members had joined Mistirine and senior JPN officials on a visit to the school for its “Ziarah Cakna” programme. The SIA President described the JPN programme as being very innovative and timely.
The JPN Director and officials took their time to “turun padang” to see for themselves the actual living conditions of the poorer rural students and to find out some of the root causes of the “absentee problem” (murid cicir).
It was during that visit that SIA learnt about the damaged bed-frames and immediately promised to help out. SIA also pledged to contribute RM2,000 towards the repair of a house of a student. The house was in very bad condition.
SMK Beluran teachers themselves also collected another RM1,000 for the same purpose.
Unfortunately, both the two projects were later delayed due to the imposition of the Movement Control Order issued by the Government to break the chain of the Covid-19 infection.
Soon as the situation permitted, Sagaran summoned his workmen to fix the beds, charging SIA only the cost to cover the materials used and forgoing any profit.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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SMK Beluran Principal Nor Aslam Mano Abdullah, who is also Vice-President of SIA, recorded his thanks and appreciation to all concerned.
He assured that SIA will continue to be involved in the community and social work that benefit society.