Plight of teachers sharing house gets Johor govt's attention

The plight of his family got to the ear of Johor Education, Information, Heritage and Culture Committee chairman Mazlan Bujang who visited the school in October, leading to a push for the construction of new quarters.

The cost of building the two units of one-storey house estimated at RM125,000 was contributed by Johor Menteri Besar, Kumpulan Prasarana Rakyat Johor Sdn Bhd and Mersing MP Datuk Abdul Latiff Ahmad and the school would now have a total of six units of teachers' quarters.

Interestingly, the project which began construction on Nov 5, is now 80 per cent completed with the efforts of the school's teachers including Shaiful Rizal, headmaster Norianto Ahmad Sukani, 39, and Mazlan himself.

When met by reporters, Shaiful Rizal, 31, said before lodging with another SK Peta teacher's family, he and wife, Sharifah Azreen Syed Mahmud, 31, who is also a teacher at the school, were renting an Orang Asli house since 2015.

"The rented house was not comfortable as it was an old house, forcing me to ask a friend who live with his wife and a child, if he does not mind sharing the three-room quarters with my family early this year," said Shaiful Rizal who has two sons, aged four and two.

The Perlis-born, who has been teaching in the school since 2013, admitted that constructing the houses was not easy, especially for an individual like him who has no skills in the field.

Meanwhile, Mazlan said the building of the additional quarters was the Johor government's initiative to help overcome the problems faced by teachers in the rural areas, besides understanding the federal government's constraint in providing quarters immediately.

He said the cost of constructing a house could be much higher due to the cost of transporting materials to remote areas. If the project is opened for tender, it could reach RM300,000, but through our joint efforts, we managed to maintain the cost at RM125,000 for two houses with two bedrooms and a bathroom each," he said.

Mazlan who is an experienced contractor, said the project at SK Peta has became a pioneer project which would be expanded to other areas under his purview.

Norianto said he did not expect the quarters' construction could be carried out so soon, which was about a week after the issue was forwarded to Mazlan.

"For me, this (quarters construction) is an appreciation of the teachers. As mentioned by YB (Mazlan), teachers are like unsung heroes," he said, adding that the school, which is located about 60 kilometre from Kahang town near Kluang, have 11 teachers including himself and 44 students.