RM1mil for SJKC Choon Hwa Pandan

Building funds: Mah (left) handing over a cheque for RM1mil to SJKC Choon Hwa Pandan management board chairman Cheong Yew Hon (second from right). Looking on are Leong (second from left) and Chin (far right). – LOW BOON TAT/ The Star.

THE Education Ministry has approved the construction and relocation of 127 Chinese primary schools in a span of 18 years.

Deputy Education Minister Datuk Dr Mah Hang Soon said from 1999 to 2017, the ministry gave the green light for 98 schools to be relocated, and another 29 to be constructed.

To date, 19 of the 29 new schools have achieved completion. Ten others were the latest to obtain the approval in 2017.

As for the relocation of Chinese schools, Mah said 82 have been completed, while one is undergoing construction. Eight others have not neared completion.

He added that the board of governors has appraised the land for one while another six were the latest to obtain the relocation approval in 2017.

These 127 plans account for 10% of the total 1,301 Chinese primary schools in the country, he said during the groundbreaking ceremony for SJKC Choon Hwa Pandan, Kuala Lumpur, on March 26.

“The most important thing is that we have this responsibility to help propel every school, especially since the permit is hard-won, to ensure that the plan is carried out as soon as possible, ” he said before handing over a cheque for RM1mil, which is part of the allocation from the government for the construction of the school.

SJKC Choon Hwa Pandan Building Committee deputy chairman and Ceremony Organising Committee chairman Datuk Leong Kok Wee said this construction is the new site for the school, currently located in Batu 18, Hulu Langat.

The school’s headmistress Chin Siok Wai said SJKC Choon Hwa Pandan is a low-enrolment school with 46 pupils this year.

She said that by relocating to the new site, hopefully in three years, it would be able to serve more people.