TAMBUNAN: Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan has urged the Education Ministry staff to go to the ground with the people’s representatives to get first-hand look and overcome problems faced by schools in Sabah.
He said that through such efforts the ministry could discuss with elected representatives and school principals on how to solve the problems faced by schools.
“This includes collecting the applications by schools to the ministry.
“At the same time, the ministry may also take into account all applications made to overcome the problems faced by schools,” he said in his speech when officiating at SMK Tambunan Academic Excellence Award held at Datuk Anthony Gibon hall, here yesterday.
Pairin, who is also Minister of Infrastructure Development, approved a RM32,000 to purchase furniture for SMK Tambunan.
He said he would also receive all the applications made by the school and see the authorities concerned could help.
“The school applied for the allocation, we received it and see whether the needs could be met or otherwise.
“But I ask the Education Ministry to go to the ground to solve problems faced by schools, especially applications involving a huge financial allocation,” he said.
Pairin said the allocation he approved RM32,000 for the purchase of school furniture will be channeled to the District Technical Committee, chaired by the District Officer.
He said the committee will study the needs of the school to ensure that adequate provision.
Earlier in his speech, SMK Tambunan principal Ting Sien Kuan said the school’s performance in public examinations in 2014 was encouraging.
Last year’s PT3 examination, 17.3 percent of students passed all subjects.
He said the achievement was not considered as bad because it was the first PT3 examination for the whole country.
“For Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) 2014, the school recorded 93.9 percent passes with School Average Grade (GPS) of 5.39 that surpassed the GPS at district and state levels. As for STPM, the school recorded 98.84 percent passes or GPS of 2.39,” he said.
Ting said the school had also won numerous achievements in co-curriculum and among others emerging champion in the Borneo Marathon Open 2014 competition, third place in World Paragliding Championship Asia 2014, and state-level Poetry and Songs 2014 champion.
He said the school has 1,400 students in Form One to Five as well as pre-university students and with 105 teachers.
He said, starting June this year, the school would be a Form Six Centre for Tambunan district.
This means that Lower Six students from SMK Desa Wawasan, SMK Nambayan and SM St Martin will sign up to become students of SMK Tambunan.
A total of 37 students who excelled in last year’s PT3, SPM and STPM received the Academic Excellence Award and Parent and Teacher Association (PTA) Incentive presented by Pairin.