Teachers sacrifice for Penan children

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LONG LATIN, Ulu Baram: The four teachers of a primary school here may have been short-changed on their accommodation for the past three years.

NEEDS REPAIR: The dilapidated state of SK Long Lutin. — Bernama photo

NEEDS REPAIR: The dilapidated state of SK Long Lutin. — Bernama photo

Nevertheless, they are looking at a bigger picture here.

The teachers, including a married couple, are ‘victorious’ in another way.

They are providing valuable education to Penan children.

Almost 100 per cent of the 209 students at their Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Long Lutin are Penan children from seven schools, who are provided hostel accommodation.

For the past three years, the four teachers have been forced to sleep in a single but small room.

The room, measuring 20x10x10, was a stopgap measure available to the teachers due to insufficient accommodation for teaching staff.

The principal, Edward Ngullie Anggun, said the school, which was built in the early 1980s, only had four teacher’s quarters, including a dilapidated unit which could not cater to the 12 teachers and their families.

“To tackle this problem, we built two rooms below the classrooms because there was insufficient accommodation here,” he told Bernama here yesterday.

Transition Class teacher Helleh Lihan, 29, said she and husband Fanuel Gerawal Edom, 26, had been putting up in the crowded room below the classrooms for three years.

However, she said they were grateful to have a place to stay and it did not dampen their spirits to provide the best for the Penan children in Ulu Baram.

“We would like the government to provide better accommodation, especially for rural schools like this, and we know it is hard for them to imagine unless they come and see what it’s like for themselves,” she said.

Meanwhile, another teacher at the school, 45-year-old Benjamin Lenjan said he was living in a teacher’s quarters that was on the verge of collapse.

He said in his six years at the school, various efforts had been made to obtain new quarters for them but nothing had so far, materialised.

“The current accommodation is not safe, especially since it is located by the river and the interior gets wet when it rains,” he added.

Meanwhile, Nor Fazilan Abdul Razak, 26, of Kedah, who teaches at SK Long Kevok here, said they initially faced difficulties in adjusting to the living conditions in Ulu Baram.

He said the main problem at the school was communication, whereby the nearest town was a four to five-hour journey via the trunk road, depending on the weather.

His colleague, Nor Hasnora Jali, of Pahang, said the fate of the Penan community in Ulu Baram made her more determined to give the children the best education.

She said being posted to rural schools was something new teachers feared, but she felt it was a valuable experience in her career.

“What we teachers do here may seem small, but it is a priceless contribution for the Penan children,” she added.

Meanwhile, in conjunction with the Community Outreach programme jointly organised by the Kuching Specialist Hospital (KcSH) and Syarikat Samling Timber Sdn Bhd, two Penan schools received a contribution of clothes, bags and school materials presented by hospital director Ngeng Eng Cheng.

He said the main problem faced in the Penan area was transportation, whereby the residents relied on free transport provided by Syarikat Samling Timber Sdn Bhd which operated there.

He said without transportation from the company, the Penan community would have to pay between RM300 and RM500 to travel to the nearest town. — Bernama