Dear Teachers...

I read in the paper this morning (17/06/08) that a young teacher was killed in an accident with a bus along the Ranau-KK highway... My deepest sympathy to the family of the bereaved.

Here in Sabah, most of our Sabahan teachers are posted in the remote places of Sabah. I have a lot of friends who has taken the path to education in order to 'nurture' our young generations (well, if you don't take into account the millions of PTI's or 'Penduduk Tempatan Istimewa' into the equation). I salute them for their commitment although they are posted to these remote places like Paitan, Ulu Tongod, Tangkarason etc. Well, furthermore, they have decided that teaching will be their career for the rest of their life IMO..

During the course of my work also, I have the opportunity to to visit a few of the 'remotest' schools in Beluran District i.e. SK Tangkarason, SK Kebuloh, SK Tampat, SK Sualok, SK Obah among others. (I was doing site visits to these schools to gather informations for the proposed project of building Teacher's quarters).

During these visits, I also had an opportunity to chat with the teacher's there. What I respect most is that, although they're faced with hardship, they are committed in their works. The hardship can be in many forms like no piped-water (only gravity, rain or river water), no electricity or limited if they are using generator set and far away from town area. I remember that when we go in to these school, one of the teacher (from SK Tampat) who guides us to the school had to buy cooking gas all the way from Sandakan!! (He must have taken the chance to buy the gas since he is following us...)

And it is great pleasure to see their reaction when they found out that their school are selected for building new quarters for them. There is joy in their eyes, although they won't say it aloud.

I would also like to say that other than the hardship they encounter, they're also faced with many danger especially during bad weather conditions. I was told that at one time a school nearly submerged in water, which happened very fast, and that the teachers are forced to save teaching materials, equipments etc. quickly... imagine that!!

Coming back to the accident in the paper, I hope that our teachers, wherever they may be, especially those who are in the remote school areas, to take care. I know some of you are going back and forth from KK to Tambunan, Keningau, Ranau etc. during the weekends or school holidays to go back to your beloved hometown... drive carefully.

A flooded road to SK Tampat. We were unable to go through for 2 days!! (The man in the picture is the Education Officer in-charge of schools in the Beluran District..though, I have forgotten his name..sorry Cikgu)

SK Tangkarason - a school in the middle of an oil plantation

There's no direct road to SK Tampat. We had to park our car elsewhere & walk to reach it..

Flooded road to SK Obah.. SK Obah is still another 1-hour drive though. (The man wading the road is Mr Pang - our lead Engineer for our team)