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Education Ministry to seek Sarawakian parents' consent before merging under-enrolled schools

KUCHING: The proposal to merge Sekolah Kurang Murid (SKM) or under-enrolled schools will only be implemented upon receiving consent from parents affected by the plan.

This was the assurance given by Education Minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid over the proposal to overcome problem concerning low pupils enrolment at schools in the rural areas.

"According to the regulation imposed by the ministry, we are required to obtain approval from the parents of students in these schools before we can proceed with the plan to combine the affected schools.

"Nevertheless, we will not force the parents into accepting the proposal.

"It is up to them to decide whether to let their children to continue schooling at schools categorised as SKM or make way for implementation of the proposals," Mahdzir told reporters after the closing ceremony of the 2nd International Conference on Special Education at Borneo Convention Centre here today.

Present were State Education, Science and Technology Research Minister Datuk Seri Michael Manyin, the ministry’s director-general Tan Sri Dr Khair Mohamad Yusof and Sarawak Education Department director Rakayah Madon.

In Sarawak, Mahdzir said there are a total of 651 schools with less than 150 pupils.

In a two-day lab conducted to look into the welfare and future plans of Sarawak’s SKM conducted last month also found 1,004 schools with less than 300 pupils.

To explain the proposed merger of such schools in the state, Mahdzir said the ministry together with the State Education Department will jointly conduct a roadshow statewide this month.

The roadshow, he said, was aim to give clearer views on the ministry's proposal to non-governmental organisations and the public especially parents of pupils at the affected schools.

Meanwhile, Michael urged parents of students in the affected schools to look at the "bigger picture" and think about the future of their children.

He expressed his concern over the level of competitiveness and access to quality education of schools with low number of pupils.

"Since there is low number of schools, there is no competitive environment to drive or motive the pupils to perform better.

"At the same time, the ministry do not send specialist teacher (teacher dedicated to teach one subject) to SKM, which leads to a situation where a teacher supposedly teaching Bahasa Melayu would also teach other subjects.

"This will be a problem if it involves key subjects such as Mathematics and Science.

"That is why there are some cases where rural students are have low interest in critical subjects such as Science and Mathematics since the schools does not have a dedicated teacher for such subjects," said Michael.

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