KINABATANGAN: Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Inarat located in rural Sabah has been closed for nearly two weeks because of the absence of teachers.
Kinabatangan member of parliament Datuk Bung Moktar Radin urged the Ministry of Education and Education Department to appoint teachers from Kampung Inarat to take on the teaching role.
“The village is very remote and it will take seven to eight hours just to get there by road,” he said to reporters while visiting the school.
He added that rain would make it difficult for teachers to make their way to the school and this probably had caused SK Inarat to be closed for almost two weeks.
“The teachers are finding it hard to get to the school because of the terrible roads,” he said.
Bung Moktar regretted to learn that the two teachers who taught in SK Inarat were relieved of their duty because they were unqualified.
“This means there is no reason for the children to attend school and hence, the school was closed,” he said.
Bung Moktar said the fault lies with the Education Ministry for choosing non-local teachers who may find it difficult to adjust to the rural environment.
“The ministry has to solve this problem immediately because I don’t want the children in Kampung Inarat to be left out from education,” he added.
During the visit to another school, SK Balat, Bung Moktar who is deputy chairman of the Backbenchers Club, pointed out that the school building is no longer fit for school activities.
“The responsible parties have to look into this matter and find a solution,” he said.
Another problem with SK Balat, according to the member of parliament, is that the solar panels have not been working for the past five years.
“The solar panels have not been functioning since they were installed,” he said.
He asserted if the solar panels cannot be fixed, the ministry might as well shut them down.