TUARAN: The Education Ministry has identified a new site for the construction of a secondary school in Pekan Nabalu, here.
The school will be built on a 23-acre land in Kampung Giok and is expected to replace the SMK Pekan Nabalu project, which has been abandoned since 2014.
Education Minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid said the Minerals and Geoscience Department has completed its survey on the land.
"We are now in the process of transferring the land (title) from five (land) owners. They have yet to sign the agreement but once this is done, we will start to look into the design (of the building).
"Looking at the landscape, it is unsuitable for tall buildings and therefore, I suggest that we construct several single-storey building structures for safety reason," he told reporters at SK Giok, here.
Mahdzir said the old SMK Pekan Nabawan project was abandoned after the Minerals and Geoscience Department had declared the site unsafe due to unstable soil.
He also admitted that when the RM30 million school project was first launched in 2012, no soil test was carried out on the old site.
He said the government then suffered losses amounting to RM3 million as a result.
Mahdzir was accompanied by Science, Technology and Innovation Minister and Tuaran member of parliament Datuk Seri Wilfred Madius Tangau.
Earlier, Mahdzir and Madius visited SK Mengkabong in Tuaran to monitor the Inquiry-Based Science Education approach in the primary school and to get update on the school’s development.
Established inm 1939, the primary school built on a slope and has been declared unsafe by the Public Works Department due to the movement of soil.
In a briefing, the school headmistress Nuridah Kadom said the school had in 2014 applied for new building to be constructed but had yet to obtain approval.