KOTA KINABALU: A total of 240 dilapidated schools have been identified in Sabah for upgrading and repair works within two years.

State Education and Innovation Minister Datuk Dr Yusof Yacob said a sum of RM1bil would be used for this purpose during the two-year period.

“The upgrading and repair works will be carried out in two phases, one (involving 120 schools) this year and the remaining in 2019,” he said during the convocation ceremony of Sabah Sandakan Polytech­nic in Sandakan on Saturday.

However, he said the RM1bil funds for this purpose would not be enough and hoped other agencies could come forward to help fund the repair works.

“We need to fix this problem and give students a proper study environment,” Yusof said.

More allocations were needed from the government to complete the repair works and the ministry would work with other agencies, public or private, to help in funding, he added.

He said some companies came forward to pledge their assistance as part of their corporate social responsibility.

Furthermore, he said assistance was needed in terms of human resources such as tutoring needy students.

Earlier in his opening speech at the convocation ceremony, he said the country was looking at increasing technical and vocational training education enrolment by 2.5 times by 2025.

Thus, community colleges, vocational and polytechnics need to play a part to make this vision a reality, he said.