(Oct 20): Hopes for a modern, concrete residential school building for the children of Kampung Long Sukang in Lawas, Sarawak, were dashed five years ago when the contractors picked up their tools and left.

What was supposed to be the new SK Long Sukang is now a three-storey husk of mouldy concrete, with weeds growing in the unfinished corridors and dog droppings littering the classrooms.

Inside, there aren’t enough beds to go around and so some of the children make do with thin mattresses on the concrete floor.

The abandoned project is another example of how Sarawak’s remote communities have to live with below-par infrastructure even as Putrajaya’s policymakers boast about turning Malaysia into a developed nation in five years.

SK Long Sukang parent-teacher association (PTA) head Yaris Semayong said the buildings were only about 70% done when the contractors left in 2010.

Of the whole project, only three buildings are completed – two dormitories and one dining hall – and even then, the finishing touches are missing.

Teachers and pupils moved in three years ago from their old wooden school building, and since then, have simply made do with their half-finished surroundings.

One of the dorms was converted into classrooms and furnished with tables, chairs and stationery.

The other dorm was used as sleeping quarters for the 120 pupils. But unlike other residential schools where male and female pupils would be housed in separate buildings, the children here were squeezed together in the same building.

A visit by The Malaysian Insider recently found that the boys slept in rooms on the west side of the building while the girls slept on the east side. A desk, for a security guard’s station, was placed in the walkway between the boys and girls side.

Asked why the school opted to squeeze the children into the hostels, Semayong said: “They just could not stand staying in the old wooden dorms any more. We waited so long for the new school and yet it was incomplete. We wanted to move in very badly so we had to make adjustments.”

Signs of an incomplete project were everywhere, even in the dormitories.

The main concrete walkway had no stairs and temporary wooden stairs had to be built.

Though it has furniture, there are not enough beds for everyone. The boys sleep on thin mattresses on the concrete floor.

“The school didn’t even have money for plastic mats to cover the concrete floors. The PTA had to pitch in money to buy them,” said Semayong.

Delay because of ‘internal problems’

The Education Ministry said construction was halted after the authorities detected soil movement and natural water flows at a slope behind the administrative and classroom block.

“Due to safety factors, a stop-work order was issued. But work on other blocks not affected continued,” said ministry secretary-general Tan Sri Dr Madinah Mohamad in an email response.

Madinah said the school project was packaged with several others and admitted that it was behind schedule due to internal problems of the contractor, a joint venture between NCSB Engineering Sdn Bhd and Sebiro Holdings Sdn Bhd.

She said the ministry was finalising plans to stabilise and repair the slope. Once these are complete, construction on the abandoned block will resume.

In the meantime, efforts were being made to make the pupils’ stay at the completed dormitories as comfortable as possible. This included making sure there was enough staff to monitor their movements at night given that the boys and girls are housed in the same building.

“There are three pupil management assistants to look after the safety, their hygiene, health and discipline of all pupils in the dorm. The teachers also act as hostel wardens to monitor the dorms and the pupil’s movements at night,” said Madinah.

The ministry has also started the process of buying furniture and beds for pupils, said Madinah, adding that linoleum mats had been bought for pupils to place their mattresses and personal belongings.

“The procurement process will take a bit of time... The Sarawak Education Department is also ensuring that dorm furniture will be provided as quickly as possible for the pupils.”

Built on a stream

Semayong said the PTA had been informed of the reasons for the delay was halted but they asked why the contractor was allowed to start work on the present site in the first place.

“They had built the administrative block on what used to be a stream. They diverted the original stream so that it flows around the new building.

“But the land which they built on is still waterlogged,” said Semayong, pointing to a section of the ground floor which had a large pool of water despite the fact that it had not rained in days in Long Sukang.

During The Malaysian Insider’s visit, Semayong showed how the ground underneath half of the administrative and classroom building was swampy and that water pooled around the floors.

“So the question is why build on a stream in the first place?” – The Malaysian Insider