KUCHING – Sarawak has high hopes on gaining autonomy over education and health matters under the new unity federal government.
State Education, Innovation, and Talent Development Deputy Minister I Datuk Dr Annuar Rapaee pointed to Point 33 of Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) manifesto for the 15th general election, which mentioned the decentralisation of power to Sarawak and Sabah, also covering autonomy for education and health matters.
In this regard, he hoped that under the unity government, this would become a reality soon.
“The autonomy for our education matters has been mentioned numerous times, even before the formation of the new (federal) unity government.
“We’re grateful that this new government is formed in line with the second principle of the Rukun Negara, which is ‘Loyalty to the King and Country’, in that GPS (Gabungan Parti Sarawak) has been together to form this government for the benefit of the rakyat,” he said in reply to a supplementary question by Fazzrudin Abdul Rahman (Tupong-Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu) in the Sarawak assembly yesterday.
During the question-and-answer session, Annuar also said there were 247 dilapidated schools throughout the state that had been identified for repair works since 2019.
He added that of the number, 62 schools (25%) had undergone repairs, while the remaining 185 were in various levels of planning and construction.
“After the Covid-19 pandemic, repairing dilapidated schools has been actively done and we hope this could be solved as soon as possible.” – Borneo Post Online, November 26, 2022
