SIBU: Sibu Rural District Council (SRDC) yesterday brought good news to Sungei Pak primary school students when it announced that it would adopt the jungle path they use to reach the school.
It said it would build a proper road which it will maintain so that the students no longer need to endure the difficult walk. The students had been treading the jungle path through thick undergrowths and across streams before dawn to reach school at daybreak.
The council said within a year or two, their parents might be able to send their children to school on motorcycles and the children could even cycle to school after it has built either a concrete or gravel path for them.
SRDC deputy chairman Clerence Ting commented yesterday that the plight of Sungei Pak longhouse folks had caught their attention, prompting them to come up with the plan to alleviate the children’s suffering in pursuing education.
“We shall study ways to upgrade the jungle path before turning it into either a concrete or gravel path.”
The good news came after thesundaypost highlighted the plight of the folks of the four longhouses in its recent issue.
The children of these longhouses rise at 4am before they set out half an hour later armed with torch-lights to go to school through the rugged terrain.
They then have to cross three streams, encountering wild creatures like snakes, wild boars and orangutans along the way.
The children said the jungle path was often flooded, and the chest-high water might stay up to over a month.
Often, this forced them to stay in the school with their teachers as their parents would not be able to fetch them.
Newly elected Dudong assemblyman Yap Hoi Liong had pledged he would seek help for the children and the community.
In the interview yesterday, Ting said SRDC had met with the school authorities, the students and the community leaders to find ways to help the school children.
“Five solutions have been adopted. Firstly, we shall clear the jungle path for the students beginning July 15. We take this as an urgent step to help the students.”
Secondly, he said, the council would study and decide whether to build a concrete or gravel path before moving on to the third solution to build the path, the type of which would be determined by their study.
Ting said the community leaders had suggested building a gravel path because it was always flooded.
“Fourthly, after building the road, we shall get the Department of Irrigation and Drainage in to clear the three streams that cut across the path regularly, and each time the workers will have to report to the school headmaster on the progress of their work.”
Lastly, he said they would adopt the road after building it, and from then on maintain it for the rest of the time.
He said they would from then on cut the grass along the road once a fortnight, “and to ensure the grass cutter will do a proper job, he will have to report to the headmaster too.”
Ting said this was a matter which Lanang MP Datuk Tiong Thai King had taken to heart too.
“Because of his concern, Tiong has built the jungle path with the development fund for his Lanang constituency under the Peta Fund.”
He said the path was built in 2007, and because it belonged to the community and not SRDC, the council had not stepped in to maintain it.
He said as years went by the thick undergrowth grew back.
“With our adoption plan now, this will be good news to the four longhouses there – namely Rumah Shandom Ajang, Rumah Janang, Rumah Sebastian Igom and Rumah Iweng.”
Ting said SRDC’s team comprising secretary Justani Joni, enforcement head Affindie, public works senior technical assistant John Lau and himself met the longhouse folks last week.
He said they also talked to a Primary Six female student from Rumah Sadom, Niswin Tintin, to find out their difficulties.
“They wake up at 4am, prepare themselves and set off to school in half an hour on the 3km jungle path to reach school before 6am.”
He said the headmaster also told the council that upon reaching the school, the teachers would let these students take a bath before taking their breakfast prepared by their parents.
“Niswin told us if they went to school in the rain, they would arrive with their bodies covered in mud.”
He said the headmaster also admitted that because of the tiring journey in the dark, smaller children were sometimes reluctant to go to school.
Ting said: “For me in the rural council, my first priority is to help rural school children.
“In this case, the primary school children of SK Nanga Pak deserve help.”
There are 29 primary students in SK Nangka Pak. Twenty of them are from these four longhouses.
The children told the rural council that they used to set out at pre-dawn in a group of at least five.
Ting said there were many rural roads which were private properties – meaning, they did not belong to his rural council.
He said the longhouse community could apply for the grass cutting subsidy of these roads, and the fund had greatly helped the rural community in maintaining the rural infrastructure.
He said the longhouse community of Sungei Pak, including Rumah Awing, had applied for it before.
“Normally, when they apply for the fund, the successful applicants will have to cut the grass, or else, the other residents will complain to us.”
|
