Flooding forces closure of five schools in Selangau

SELANGAU (Jan 12): Five schools here were unable to operate on the first day of the new school term following the flood situation affecting the area over the past few days.

Selangau district officer Yalin Asan said the floods had caused several main access to the schools to be inaccessible.

It was informed that the affected schools are SK Nanga Tajam, SK Nanga Selangau, SK Kuala Lemai and SK Ulu Sungai Arip.

“SK Nanga Selangau and SK St Mark are completely submerged. SK St Mark is now implementing home-based teaching and learning (PdPR).

“For SK Ulu Sungai Arip, the school operations cannot be carried out because the school hall has been used as a PPS (temporary evacuation centre) since Jan 10,” he said when contacted on Monday on the first day of the 2026 school term.

The PPS is currently sheltering 238 flood victims from four longhouses.

Adding on, Yalin said the Selangau District Education Office (PPD) has taken proactive measures by restructuring learning schedules for the affected schools.

“This is meant to ensure that students’ learning processes are not completely disrupted despite the flood situation.

“So far, Selangau has only one PPS operating within a school compound; any need to open additional PPS will be discussed with the PPD if flooding continues,” he said.

Meanwhile, 11 temporary evacuation centres (PPS) were officially closed on Monday, leaving 14 active centres statewide, said the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC).

In an update at 4pm, SDMC said the 14 PPS are sheltering 1,822 flood and landslide victims.

The 11 closed PPS are located in Siburan (3), Serian (6), and one each in Balai Ringin and Selangau.
In its 8am update earlier, SDMC reported a total of 3,111 evacuees being housed at 25 PPS across Sarawak.