Wong: Neglect of Sabah Schools a factor for 'failure'

KOTA KINABALU, January 28, 2010: The 'failure' of the schools from Sabah and Sarawak to make it to the list of the country's top 20 schools is not only questionable, demoralizing and an insult to the teachers and students of the two states, but also a solid proof of the Federal government's neglecting of the various types of schools in the two states, said Datuk Wong Yit Ming, Sabah Progressive Party's (SAPP) Education Bureau Chief.

He pointed this out while commenting on the recent announcement made by the Deputy Prime Minister cum Education Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on the said list of top 20 schools in the country, which was completely void of schools from the two states.

"It's a known fact that till today Sabah is still facing acute shortage of teachers mainly due to insufficient allocations from the Education Ministry. Many schools in the rural areas of Sabah are still lack of such basic amenities like power and water supply hence, making a mockery of the constant proclamations of teaching Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the schools," noted Wong in a statement issued here today.

He further lamented that there are many 'mega schools' in the rural areas of Sabah, some costing hundreds of millions of taxpayers' money to built, have now become "white elephants" due to poor planning which resulted in poor students enrolment. This had inevitably defeated the objective of elevating the education standard in the rural region.

He thus urged the State BN leaders to demand the Federal government especially the Education Ministry, to start paying serious attention to Sabah schools and to allocate more funds to better boost the education standard in the State, to be at par with some of the top schools in the country.
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