Maintenance works should be done during school holidays — Wan Zain

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TEMPORARY CLASSROOMS: Students have been studying in 16 makeshift classrooms in five existing cabins as seen here since the school was established in 2007. — Photo by Jeffrey Mostapa

KUCHING: Why are school maintenance works not being implemented during the holiday period when there are no classes in session?

This was the question posed by social activist Wan Zain Syed Mohdzar who noticed that maintenance works are always done when students and teachers are back in the schools.

He pointed out that since the works were done when schools were in session; this led to much inconvenience apart from interrupting concentration of the students.

“This is often the case in many schools. Works to repair toilets or leaks in classrooms are often done during school session. Even things like replacing old tables and chairs are also done when everyone is in school.

“To me, this is better done during the holidays when the students are not in,” he said yesterday.

Wan Zain, who is also Malaysian Parents Consultative Body (Mapim) Sarawak chairman, said he had received complaints from parents who told him that learning environment became less conducive when maintenance works were done during the school session.

As such, he called on the relevant authorities to come out with a better system to address this issue.

“From my observation, maintenance works on schools are usually done in the early part of the year, during schooling session. We need to find ways to improve the situation,” he said.

On another matter, he called management boards of schools to do away with the habit of asking teachers of other subjects to substitute for a colleague on maternity leave or prolonged sick leave.

Instead of doing this, he said the schools could have asked for additional teachers in order to teach the specialised subject to the students.

“If the school asks someone who is not specialised in that subject to stand in for a colleague, I feel this is unfair to the students because that teacher may not teach the subject the right way.

“I was told of a situation whereby a PJ (physical education) teacher was asked to teach English because the colleague who teaches the subject had to take a long sick leave,” he said.

He suggested that school management boards should plan early when a teacher has to go on leave, and he believed this could be sorted out if they made the planning during the holiday period.