ISSUE OF SK SIMPANGAN PAITAN, BELURAN – FLOODING SINCE FEBRUARY 2026: WHY WAS ACTION DELAYED?
The major flood in mid-February 2026 nearly destroyed SK Simpangan, Paitan. Since then, students and teachers have been struggling to continue teaching and learning under unsafe and severely limited conditions.
However, after more than two months, the only announcement made was a proposal to relocate the school under the 13th Malaysia Plan (RMK-13). This raises serious concerns about the efficiency and prioritisation of the government’s post-disaster response in education.
Why did it take so long for concrete action to be taken? If the government is truly committed to the welfare of education in Sabah, emergency funds should have been activated immediately after the disaster to provide safe temporary learning facilities and ensure uninterrupted schooling.
Instead, students have been placed in inadequate temporary spaces that are not suitable as proper classrooms. Why did action only appear to accelerate after the issue gained public attention?
When a school is destroyed by disaster, the response should be immediate and emergency-based, not solely dependent on long-term planning processes.
We welcome the temporary relocation of students to the open hall of SMK Simpangan with partitions as an emergency measure. However, this is clearly only a minimum stopgap solution caused by delays in implementing a more comprehensive plan.
From an education standards perspective, learning environments must meet basic requirements such as safety, comfort, and effective teaching conditions. Even with partitions, an open hall does not provide a proper classroom environment in terms of noise control, temperature, lighting, and learning space.
In disaster situations like this, many alternatives are available and have been used elsewhere, such as modular classrooms, container classrooms, or fully equipped temporary school facilities. These approaches are more systematic and ensure continuity of education.
The statement that students will remain in temporary facilities “until the new school is completed” raises two key questions: how long will construction actually take, and how long will students be in this temporary arrangement? The Ministry of Education should provide a clear and transparent timeline.
Children in Sabah should not be subjected to lower educational standards simply due to geographical factors or administrative delays.
