‘I don’t want my son to be illiterate’

A much awaited primary school in Kg Kinadaan in Beluran is completed and fit for use yet has been unoperational since 2011.

KOTA KINABALU: An illiterate father from Kampung Kinadaan in Beluran in the interior of Sabah is among several parents who want the contentious SK Matanggal school opened immediately.

Bongking Engga, 31, is worried that he won’t have a school to send his young son to next year and that his son could end up being unable to read and write like him.

According to Engga, the nearest school is SK Binsulung which is 22 kilometres away from his village and the dirt road is not passable even by 4x 4 wheel vehicles on a rainy day.

“Walking will take more than six hours, that is if you walk really fast. If you use a vehicle, it will be faster but you will have to go through the estate where you have to pay RM10 every time you pass their gate.

“So, going to school will cost RM20 per day. And the (estate) gate will (only) be open from 7am to 6pm daily. You cannot pass outside this time,” he said.

According to Engga, the Kampung Kinadaan villagers had raised the SK Matanggal school issue with the ministry many times and all they received were promises after promises.

Expressing his deep disappointment when told of Deputy Education Minister Mary Yap’s reaction to Likas assemblyman Junz Wong’s disclosure last week of their woes, Engga said “it is now clear that she did not understand the difficulties and worries that parents like us have.

“We have brought up the issue many times for years. We have talked to the leaders, to education department officers and all we were given were promises after promises.

“In 2011, we asked what would become of the children, already 11, 12 or 13 years old, and the answer was that they could enroll in 2012.

“But now the school is still not open and the children are getting older and left further behind.

“I too am worried because my child is now five-and-half years old and should be in school next year.

“I am worried the school will still not be open by then, and I will have to move out so I can provide him with education.

“But to where? I have no education and I am poor. I’m not sure if I can afford to live in the city,” he told reporters here.

Too old for school

Another villager, Jumaru Jalot, also 31, said about 40% of the villagers from Kinadaan had already moved out to the city in order to find education for their children.

As a result, many lands in the village were left idle, some had even been encroached by outsiders, said Jumaru.

Another villager Rimlan Kusin, 42, said he had to move out and live in Penampang just so his two younger children, one of whom is disabled, could go to school.

“I moved out, and with the help of a friend found a job here. Sadly it was too late for the two older children. They can no longer enroll in a primary school as they are already too old,” he said.

The three were among several other parents who were with Wong at a press conference here to rebut Yap’s dismissal of the former’s disclosure which were backed by photographic evidence of the completed school.

Wong had on Aug 8 demanded an explanation from Yap as to why the deserted SK Matanggal was not operational when it was “completed and ready with tables, chairs and other facilities” since 2011.

Wong claimed that as a result of the situation, 114 children of school-going age in Kampung Kinadaan and neighbouring villages were deprived of education.

But Yap, who is also Tawau MP, chided Wong accusing him of lacking in humility and the professional will to serve his electorate. She also told him to refrain from seeking “cheap publicity” through media statements on issues that he has “no knowledge of”.

She reportedly said that the ministry was aware of the situation in SK Matanggal school in Kampung Kinadaan in Beluran and that investigations “would logically take time”.

But Wong has questioned Yap’s ground knowledge of rural schools in Sabah.

“In all her lecturing and personal attacks against me, she failed to mention when exactly the school would be opened.

“She opted to insult me in her comments without getting her facts right,” Wong claimed.

Visit the village, Yap
According to Wong had the villagers not approached him and DAP, he would not have known about the school.

“We don’t know where the village is and we’ve never been there. We surely would be lost and the villagers not come to meet us and take us there themselves.

“What I can say is that Mary (Yap) is either lying or is being misled by her officers,” he said referring to her Sunday statement that the children in the village were ‘already’ schooling in SK Binsulung.

“This could not be further from the truth. I challenge Mary (Yap) to visit the village and talk to the parents and children to find out the truth,” he added.