KUCHING: Sarawak Teachers’ Union (STU) president William Ghani Bina yesterday praised the government for agreeing to build a secondary school at Long Bedian to serve the Penan children in the area.
Echoing Telang Usan assemblyman Lihan Jok’s sentiment on how most of the Penan children dropped out of school after completing their Primary Six education due to the lack of facilities, Ghani said he strongly believes that once the proposed school is realised the problem of early drop-out will be a thing of the past.
“Building a secondary school by their doorstep is a very good initiative that will be of great help to the Penan community which has been struggling with high drop-out rate among their children.
“Their problem is understandable because they live so far away and have to send their children to schools far away for secondary education.
“My hope is that the school would be realised soon so that the Penan community would be able to enjoy the facility in and realise that finally their children will have the opportunity of acquiring at least basic fundamental education right up to Form Five,”
he said when contacted yesterday.
Ghani also suggested that the government initiate a system whereby rural-based students with good grades are taken to study in urban schools under full government sponsorship upon completing Form 3.
He said in this way more students coming from rural villages would get the right exposure to the outside world.
Ghani noted that there were cases of rural students not performing well in colleges and universities because of the difficulty in adapting to their new environment.
He said this sort of problem would be overcome if there are strategies to get them slowly and gradually assimilated to the urban way of life and life in colleges and universities.
Ghani, however, warned against weaning rural children from their rural school environment when they have just finished Primary 6 education.
“Although the development of the mind takes time, we must make sure that these children are mature enough to be independent and know their responsibility when they set foot on a new environment. I would think that those finishing their Form 3 and going to Form 4 will be able to make the transformation,” he said.
He proposed that rural students be made to continue their studies in urban areas for the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM).
William also urged parents and village heads to device some kind of system with which to help encourage their children to take the challenge of getting education in the towns and cities.
They should seriously work on incentive-based programmes for their children, Ghani said.
“It is my dream to see thousands of our ‘anak-anak Sarawak’ (rural children) grow up to be successful, becoming important people in the society and most importantly, able to serve Sarawak in return,” he pointed out.
At the moment, there is no time frame as to when the secondary school project will be completed, but meanwhile Penan students in the Baram area have to travel all the way to SMK Long Lama, SMK Long San, SMK Bakong, SMK Marudi and SMK Bario to continue their secondary education.
The nearest school to Long Bedian is SMK Long Lama which is about three hours away by 4WD vehicles, which are luxury to most Penans.