Responding to a call from Umno Supreme Council member Puad Zarkashi for the federal government to hand over allocations for dilapidated schools in Johor to the state government following reports that repairs to such schools were abandoned, Fadhlina said such upgrades are based on a schedule set out by the public works department (JKR).

In a Berita Harian report, Fadhlina said the education ministry had repaired 694 dilapidated schools as of March, with 216 projects now in the pre-construction stage.

“All these repairs are being done according to a timeline set by JKR. So this issue (delay in repairing dilapidated schools) should not arise,” she said.

“We are working quickly with the cooperation of other agencies and the federal government is committed to completing all the projects.”

She added that her ministry is closely monitoring these repairs to ensure that they are carried out according to schedule.

Last Sunday, Johor menteri besar Onn Hafiz Ghazi revealed that 14 dilapidated schools in Johor were given allocations for repairs, but none of them were repaired over the past three years.

He said these schools were among 19 schools which were categorised as “dilapidated”.

In a Facebook post, Puad, a former deputy education minister, said the delivery system for these allocations should be reevaluated.

“It would be better to simply hand over the allocation to the state government for the implementation of such projects. End bureaucracy in the education ministry,” added the Rengit assemblyman.

Puad, who is also the state assembly Speaker for Johor, claimed there has been “silence” and a lack of transparency from the education ministry on the matter.