State government letting Ministry of Education take the lead in dealing with ‘hotspot’ schools

The state government will wait for the federal government to take further action regarding 10 Sarawak schools said to be ‘hotspots’ for disciplinary and drug problems.

Assistant Minister of Education and Technological Research Dr Annuar Rapaee said this is because the list was generated by the Ministry of Education (MOE).

“We will follow what the federal, you see the list is from federal. So we wait for the federal on how they tackle it,” he told reporters after launching SMK Pending’s ‘Ceriaton’ and gotong-royong programme yesterday.

According to the list published by the New Straits Times on Thursday, nine schools in Sarawak were placed in Category 1 as having disciplinary problems, while one was in Category 3 for discipline and drug issues.

When asked to clarify, Dr Annuar referred reporters to a statement issued by the MOE.

“Don’t take one side of the story and you start provoking me. Okay sorry, I have to make it clear. I’ve been receiving a lot of messages, asking me to verify. What for to comment? This is from the ministry already,” he said.

According to Dr Annuar, one of the Sarawak schools on the list has already transformed into a top school but was still included on the list. The MOE statement said schools on the hotspot list included those situated in locations prone to social ills and crime.

“This means that schools within hotspot areas are not necessarily the source of disciplinary problems among students,” said the statement.

The ministry said it would work with the police, armed forces, Health Ministry as well as non-governmental organisations such as the Malaysian Crime Prevention Foundation and parent-teacher associations to address the problems.

“One of the primary initiatives agreed upon is the National Blue Ocean Strategy (NBOS), which is to launch various prevention programmes with the mentioned agencies and NGOs.

“Schools that have been identified as hotspots have nothing to worry about because this is not a labelling process but a strategic management step to facilitate the programme’s implementation,” added the statement.

The 10 Sarawak schools on the list are located in Kuching, Padawan, Bau, Sri Aman, Miri, Baram, Lawas, Simunjan, Samarahan and Bintulu.

Source:
courtesy of THE BORNEO POST

by Lim How Pim

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