STATEMENT IN RESPONSE TO THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION MALAYSIA REGARDING THE RELOCATION OF STUDENTS FROM SK BALABAN JAYA BELURAN
I welcome the prompt response by the Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia dated 11 April 2026, which has taken steps to relocate students of SK Balaban Jaya Beluran to SK Pekan Beluran, with transportation costs fully borne by the Ministry.
However, the statement also indicated that several stakeholder engagement sessions (SLU) had been conducted with the school and parents. The question is: did these SLUs lead to a situation where students were forced to study on the corridors of a mosque, exposed to rain, and under tents without walls, exposed to extreme heat?
If so, this clearly reflects a serious failure in planning, implementation, and follow-up actions. Students deserve to learn in an environment that is comfortable, safe, and dignified—not under such inadequate conditions. However, I am very confident that the capable officers at the Sabah State Education Department would not have proposed such a matter as an outcome of the engagement session; there must have been underlying reasons that led to this situation. In any case, now is not the time to assign blame—the public hopes that the decision made can be implemented as soon as possible.
Furthermore, I wish to highlight a policy approach introduced by the Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia last year, whereby State Education Departments are no longer required to formulate their own State Strategic Plans. Instead, they are to rely solely on the Ministry’s Strategic Plan, implemented through Tactical and Operational Plans at the state and district levels.
This approach is clearly no longer relevant, as the realities and challenges faced by each state differ significantly. Issues faced in urban centres such as Kuala Lumpur are not the same as those in Sabah, where infrastructure challenges remain far more pressing.
Therefore, each State Education Department should be given the autonomy to develop its own Strategic Plan, tailored to local needs and challenges.
What has transpired in the relocation of students from SK Balaban Jaya Beluran clearly demonstrates the shortcomings of a centralized approach that fails to account for the realities at the state and local levels.
Education is not merely about policy—it concerns the future of our children, especially those in Sabah who continue to lag far behind in terms of infrastructure and basic facilities.
THAM YUN FOOK
N19 LIKAS ASSEMBLYMAN
