The Education Department will repair the termite-infested 54-year old wooden school block where a seven-year-old pupil yesterday sustained minor injuries after stepping on a run-down floorboard.

District Education officer Hassan Hasbollah said officials from the Education Department in Kuching would come tomorrow to inspect and assess the cost of repairing the block housing the Year One, Two and Three classrooms.

“We hope the repair can be done within this year,” he told reporters after visiting the school, SK Sayed Othman. with Piasau assemblyperson Sebastian Ting Chiew Yew in Miri today.

Hassan said SK Sayed Othman was one of the schools in the list submitted to the department early this year for urgent repair.

For long-term measure, he said, SK Sayed Othman had been picked as among the primary schools to be redeveloped under the 11th Malaysia Plan.

Meanwhile, Ting told the media that he would follow up with the Education Ministry on the promised RM100,000 allocation as announced by then-deputy education minister Puad Zarkashi in July 2012 to repair the building.

“We will pursue the matter and hope the Education Ministry would speed up the repair works as soon as possible,” he said.

Ting, who is also Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) secretary-general, said the party was willing to provide assistance to the school.

Nur Sheera Amyliana Iskandar, seven, sustained bruises from her left leg up to the knee when a rickety floorboard in her class gave way after she stepped on it.

The incident went viral in Facebook and social media prompting many netizens to express their concern for safety at the school located in the heart of Miri City which was opened in 1962 on a 1.21 hectare site.

It presently has 290 pupils, 29 teachers and six administrative staff.

- Bernama