Govt scrutinising development of dilapidated schools - Fadhlina

Special Task Force to Reform the Public Sector (Star) and the Education Ministry are looking into the proposal to empower the implementation of developing dilapidated school building projects.

Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek said among the matters being considered include the need to set up a special committee at ministry level to monitor the implementation of development on schools with dilapidated buildings.

“(Apart from that) we will improve the work process at various levels such as pre-construction and during construction apart from conducting engagement with all related parties to ensure the implementation is expedited,” she said.

She was winding up the Supply Bill 2023 debate at Dewan Rakyat today.

Star is headed by the Chief Secretary to the Government, Mohd Zuki Ali.

Fadhlina (above) said in this regard, her ministry and Star will implement several pioneer projects which would be the model to speed up the development of schools with dilapidated buildings - especially in Sabah and Sarawak.

Meanwhile, Fadhlina said her ministry will expand the concept of Comprehensive Special Model School Year 9 (K9) which is a school that provides education from Year One to Form Three to K11, with education starting from Year One to Form Five in the same school.

According to her, it was done after seeing the success of the K9 concept, which successfully tackled the problem of student dropouts in rural areas, especially among Orang Asli and native students who face difficulties in continuing their education to the secondary level.

It is due to factors such as the location of the secondary school being far away, challenging terrain and the family's socio-economy status.

As a start, she said her ministry will implement a K11 pilot at Sekolah Kebangsaan RPS Betau in Kuala Lipis, Pahang especially for Orang Asli students and Sekolah Kebangsaan Long Bedian in Baram, Sarawak for Penan students starting this school session on March 20.

To date, there are nine K9 schools in the country, she noted.

- Bernama