Uggah presents a prize and certificate to a student at the SK Nanga Gayau appreciation gathering today.
SPAOH (Feb 7): Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas has viewed with concern the difficulty in helping schools in his state constituency Bukit Saban with material aid due to red tape.
“I have realised that we, as the elected representatives, need to get the Education Ministry’s consent first now. We cannot just hand over to the school whatever aid we have promised based on request,” he said when officiating at the SK Nanga Gayau Annual Students Appreciation Gathering at the school here today.
Uggah said he had recently bought some air conditioner units as requested by a school here for its hall but till now, six months after they were delivered, they had yet to be installed.
“When I asked why, I was told it is because the (Education) Ministry has yet to give its green light for them to be installed. I too have been told to write to the ministry to seek its approval in helping,” he lamented.
He said this had resulted in the perception that he had not honored his promise to help the school.
“Not that we have reneged on our promises but our hands are tied,” he said.
However Uggah said that he would be seeking clarification from the state Education office over the matter.
On another issue, Uggah advised rural parents to limit the time their school-going children spend using their handphones to ensure that they would not become obsessive or addicted to using them.
“We now have online scams besides online gambling among others. We certainly do not want our children to fall victim to both online scams and worst still neglect their studies.
“Parents should have a sort of time table when their children can use their handphones and when they should study or when they should do other activities. The handphones – they can thrill but they can also kill,” he said.
Meanwhile Uggah also called on rural teachers to instil the love for Science and Mathematics subjects in their students right from the beginning.
The future, he said, would need people with strong foundation and good ability in the two subjects from which they could develop their professionalism and career.
“Even in Sarawak, we are now needing more graduates based on Science and Mathematics as we focus on our new economy as promoted by our Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg.
“We now have things like the hydrogen economy, green economy and others. We are also going into oil and gas exploration and production. As such we will need more technologists, engineers, accountants and others,” he said.
At the function, Uggah announced a RM40,000 grant to the school parent-teacher association (PTA).