NIBONG TEBAL: The Education Ministry has set aside an RM50 million allocation to help rehabilitate schools nationwide affected by floods.
Its minister, Fadhlina Sidek, said the allocation will be used as soon as they receive reports involving flood damage to schools from the State Education Department and District Education Office.
"Many schools have been affected, especially in Terengganu and Kelantan. On behalf of the ministry, we have set aside RM50 million for the repairs of schools affected by floods.
Fadhlina, who is also Nibong Tebal member of parliament, told this to reporters at her constituency service centre where she earlier spent over three hours listening to her constituent's concerns over various issues.
Nationwide, 287 schools have been affected by the floods, of which 82 are still actively flooded.
Fadhlina said next month's school session for states affected by floods may be deferred if the floods continues. However, the matter will be decided through discussions with the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma).
"We are following advice from Nadma regarding whether there is an alternative plan or depending on the current situation (regarding the opening of schools in flood-affected states) later.
"We have had a lot of discussions with Nadma regarding schools that have been turned into temporary flood relief centres. Besides, there is an Education Ministry disaster operations room that monitors the increase in the number of flood relief centres every day."
So far, 322 schools have been converted into flood relief centres nationwide, of which 173 have been closed and 149 remain open.
