SK Pulau Seduku not as it should be, says PTA chairman
KUCHING: It has been a very happy time for students and teachers of SK Pulau Seduku, Sri Aman after finally moving into their new school building early this year.
Parents are no longer worried that boats ferrying their children will capsize in a river that has been designated as a crocodile sanctuary during bad weather.
“Unfortunately, the water supply is very inconsistent, most of the times the children depend on harvested rain for day-to- day survival and there are no Internet facilities for both teachers and students,” the school’s ParentTeacher Association ( PTA) chairman Datuk Wan Abdillah Edruce said when contacted.
Wan Abdillah revealed that the Education Department has been doing its best to help the school but there are things beyond the ministry’s control.
“The school’s resource centre is depending on VSAT 1BestariNet from YTL Maxis Communication. When they were still at the old school, the speed was only 0.01mbps. All the devices are still at the old school building.
“Report and application letter to transfer the 1Bestarinet and Frog appliance modem have been forwarded to Education Technology Division (BTP) early this year. YTL Maxis had visited the school in July to find the best location for new dish/satellite receiver but until today nothing happened,” he said.
As a result, the school is being deprived of Internet connectivity, thus hampering all administrative works that are mandatory in today’s education system, especially updating data online.
“Teachers and students also cannot participate in virtual learning environment via MoE VLE Frog and are sidelined from all Frog related competitions that are conducted online,”
What saddened him the most is the shortage of racks in the school library, causing the library to be in disarray.
SK Pulau Seduku was supposed to be completed in October 2016, but was delayed a few times until the then Works Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof told the main contractor to complete it before the beginning of the school term this year.
“We have six classrooms, a headmaster office, staff room, library, science lab and school canteen not fully completed according to spec till now. The roundabout, metal deck for all corridors and audio system in the surau are not done yet.
“According to Sarawak Education Department, additional budget has been approved to build hostels that can accommodate 50 male and 50 female students, dining hall that can accommodate 200 persons and eight more teachers quarters,” he added.
HesaidtheEducationDepartment had submitted an application to the Public Works Department (JKR) for implementation. “We also want to thank the department which has always been supportive of the school, especially its head of development and administration Wan Fadillah Wan Ahmad,” he said.
Wan Abdillah said the project is scheduled to start next year and expected to be completed in 18 months.