KUALA LUMPUR: Parti Bersatu Sabah proposed in parliament that Sabah students be exempted from paying school fees for the next five years in light of poor conditions of schools in the State especially in the rural areas.

Bandau member of parliament Dr Maximus Ongkili said the exemption was proper because Sabah had always lagged behind in education infrastructure and that most parents in rural schools could not afford to pay fees for their children.

Debating the 2000 supply bill at the policy level, Dr Ongkili explained that Sabah and Sarawak were given exemption from the full implementation of the National Education Act in the 1970s for a period of 10 years to enable existing schools in both states to adjust to the required changes.

He said the exemption was an acknowledgement that Sabah and Sarawak were lagging behind in education facilities and needed time and special attention to catch up with the progress attained by other states.

"The payment of school fees is a big burden to parents in rural areas. Many students of poor parents are dropping out from schools because they cannot afford to pay the fees. I propose that for Sabah and Sarawak students be exempted from paying the required fees for the next five years until conditions and school facilities have improved," he stressed.

The PBS deputy president claimed that if the government failed to addressed the problem of rural schools, disparity would persist with only urban schools benefiting from improved infrastructure such as better hostels, laboratories, computer classes, internet access, text book loans, shoes and uniforms as well as better teachers.

Dr Ongkili urged the government to formulate a comprehensive master plan for the development of rural schools, arguing that the existing problems could not be solved using a piece meal approach.

He said the perennial problems besetting rural schools had not changed over the years. These included insufficient classrooms and teachers, insufficient hostel facilities, poor meals in hostels, lack or absence of electricity supply, insufficient housing for teachers,absenteeism of teachers, lack of textbooks and other assistance such as school uniforms and shoes.

"While the government is spending a lot of time and resources in developing higher education institutions and private sector education, not enough is being done for the rural sector. If this problem persists the rural people and bumiputera communities will not share in the progress of smart schools, IT education and the so-called K-economy.

"I call on the government to view the development of rural education as a battle (perjuangan) in the same manner as the government declared war on poverty since the 1970s. Only with such commitment will the rural education sector succeed and catch up with the progress made by urban schools," he said.

Dr Ongkili also urged the ministry of education to speed up the construction of a new school building for SK Magandai in Tandek which was approved in 1999, stressing that a temporary school built by the Sabah Journalists Association in 1997 was overcrowded and insufficient to cater for the present number of pupils.

On the national economy, the PBS shadow Assemblyman for economic affairs said it was still too early for the government to claim that "the financial crisis facing the country had ended."

According to him, the unresolved problems included the high rate of non-performing loans (NPL) in the finance sector, huge foreign and domestic debts, persistent downturns for many economic sectors such as services, wholesaling and retailing, and slow growth of many state economies, including the Sabah economy.