SEJAHTERA MENGKABONG

INSIGHT SABAH : The Voice Of Sabahan

Housing and schooling

Wan Ahmad Syarien, 11, and Firdaus Irwan (right), 12, have welfare money in their savings accounts.

But an 80m-ringgit village facelift raises concern over truancy
By Ng Jia Xiang

Firdaus Irwan, 12, isn’t sure what he would do with the 200 ringgit ($64) of welfare aid. It’s in his bank savings account and so it will stay there, he says. He is one of 400 poor pupils in Tuaran who are given 130,050 ringgit a year under three government welfare schemes. He spends one ringgit a day to hitch a ride on a truck to school and back to his house in Tuaran town, about 3km from Sekolah Rendah Mengkabong.

Mrs.Nuridah Kadom : school principal of Sekolah Rendah Mengkabong.

But many of his school mates couldn't go to school because they couldn't pay bus fares. Teachers of the primary school complain of high absenteeism among the 657 pupils because most of the villagers are staying at Taman Sri Rugading, a temporary shelter 9km away.

YB.Hajiji Noor : minister of local government and housing &
Mrs.Tah Niah Jeman : Tuaran Education Officer

Their 600 rickety wooden houses in the fishing village of Kampung Mengkabong have been torn down to make way for new ones at a cost of 80m ringgit. There will be 1,000 houses; and the villagers will move into them by year end. Half of them have been completed and some of the villagers have already moved into their new homes.

“They get them free,” says Hajiji Noor, minister of local government and housing. “They just have to pay for water and electricity bills.” The three-bedroom houses cost 42,000 ringgit each.

“Truancy has become critical,” says school principal Nuridah Kadom. “Many parents can’t pay the monthly 40-ringgit bus fare to school.” She says her parent-teacher association has been trying to solve this problem, particularly to find ways to help 63 pupils to prepare for their primary six final examinations.

Education officials however say this is only a temporary setback. Tah Niah Jeman, Tuaran Education Officer, recalls the days she walked and swam across the river to go to SK Mengkabong.

“Going to school is so much easier now,” she told parents and pupils at a meeting on August 17. “If I could swim and walk to school, why can’t you?”

New houses at Mengkabong

Hajiji, who gave out financial aid to the pupils, said he faced worse problems of getting to school when he was a boy. “There was no financial help. No buses and no proper roads, and yet we went to school. Being poor and unable to pay for bus fares are not excuses for not going to school.”

The poorer pupils get 450 ringgit of financial aid under the e-kasih scheme while the poorest get 700 ringgit a year which, according to Hajiji, should be more than enough to pay for their school bus fares. – Insight Sabah

– Pictures by Flanegan Bainon

Posted on 15-09-2010 03:04 pm
http://insightsabah.gov.my/article/read/567