KUCHING, Nov 26 — Sarawak has high hopes for it to gain autonomy over education and health matters under the new unity federal government.

In stating this, Sarawak Deputy Minister for Education, Innovation and Talent Development I Datuk Dr Annuar Rapaee pointed out Point 33 of Pakatan Harapan (PH)’s manifesto for the 15th general election (GE15), which mentioned the decentralisation of power to the regions of Sarawak and Sabah, also covering the autonomy for education and health matters.

In this regard, he hoped that under the unity government, this would become a reality soon.

"The autonomy for our education matters has been mentioned numerous times, even before the formation of the new (federal) unity government.

"We’re grateful that this new government is formed in line with the second principle of the Rukun Negara, which is ‘Loyalty to the King and Country’, in that the GPS (Gabungan Parti Sarawak) has been together to form this government for the benefit of the ‘rakyat’ (people),” he said in his reply to a supplementary question by Fazzruddin Abdul Rahman (GPS-Tupong) in the august House yesterday.

During the question-and-answer (Q&A) session, Dr Annuar said there were 247 dilapidated schools throughout the state that had been identified for repair works since 2019.

He added that of the total number, 62 schools (25 per cent) had undergone repairs, while the remaining 185 were in various levels of planning and construction.

"After the Covid-19 pandemic, repairing dilapidated schools have been actively done and we hope this could be solved as soon as possible,” added Dr Annuar. — Borneo Post Online