Kota Kinabalu: The Government has been urged to strengthen religious education institutions in Sabah by increasing allocations in the recently tabled supplementary budget, particularly to address the poor condition of state religious schools in rural areas.
Nominated Assemblyman Datuk Aliakbar Gulasan (PAS) said that based on field observations, many state religious schools are still operating under inadequate conditions, while some remote areas have no religious schools at all.
“I have raised this matter before in the House. When we visit the ground, we find that many of the most rundown schools are state religious schools, which I believe fall under the jurisdiction of the Sabah Islamic Religious Affairs Department (Jheains).
window.googletag = window.googletag || {cmd: []};googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.defineSlot('/22826383987/dailyexpress_inline', [1, 1], 'gpt-passback').addService(googletag.pubads());googletag.enableServices();googletag.display('gpt-passback');});“There are even villages that still don’t have a religious school at all. These schools are crucial for children in rural communities to learn religious knowledge,” he said during the debate session at the State Assembly sitting.
While expressing confidence in Jheains’ efforts to address the issue, Aliakbar stressed the need for greater focus on rebuilding, maintaining, and staffing these schools.
“I believe the government has many initiatives and incentives in this area, but I ask that specific attention be given to improving the physical structure of these schools, especially in rural areas where there is a severe lack of manpower and religious teachers.
“Some of the additional funds from this budget should be allocated for new construction, maintenance, or the hiring of more teachers,” he said.
Aliakbar also proposed closer collaboration between the Ministry of Education and Jheains to optimise the use of underutilised government school buildings as temporary religious learning spaces.
“There are areas with no religious schools, neither state religious schools nor Kafa (Kelas Agama dan Fardhu Ain), but they do have national schools. Perhaps discussions can be held between the Ministry of Education and Jheains to allow these national schools to be used as religious schools,” he said.
He also thanked the State Government for tabling the supplementary budget and expressed hope that religious education would not be sidelined in the allocation process.
Meanwhile, State Finance Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun, in his winding-up speech on the RM1 billion Supplementary Supply Bill 2025, said that RM2.69 million has been proposed for the construction of religious schools and the maintenance of teachers’ quarters and school facilities.
Earlier, Deputy Speaker Datuk Richard Yong We Kong announced that the bill was passed unanimously after being debated by 26 assemblymen.