BINTULU: A literacy progamme carried out among middle aged Penans in the Murum hydro dam area in the interior of Belaga near here has produced positive result.

Sarawak Energy Bhd (SEB) manager for social investment, Joanne Tan Cho Yian said 341 out of the 550, who had no formal education, were now being able to read fluently and write with confidence since it started in 2012.

Briefing reporters on a two-day visit to the dam area here today, she said the programme was part of SEB’s corporate social responsibility which stressed on the importance of equipping the villagers at the Tegulang and Metalun resettlement centres with the basic ability to read and write .

Some 1,415 people from 353 families are affected by the implementation of the RM3 billion dam and are now living in seven longhouses at the two resettlement centres.

A survey carried out had indicated that there was very low literacy rate among them where less than 20 per cent had received formal education.

“So we decided to come up with the programme which is supported by the Society for the Advancement of Women and Family Sarawak (Save).

“Classes were set up in seven longhouses which included six in Murum and one in Sungai Asap,” she said, adding that it only catered to the women.

So far, she said SEB had trained 31 facilitators from among the students, who in turn conducted the literacy classes at their respective longhouses.

She said at present there were two primary schools in the centres, the SK Metalun catering to 126 students and SK Tegulang (135) next year.

According to Belaga District Officer Abdul Halim Abdullah it was very important that the settlers were able to appreciate all that the government was doing for them.

“When they are literate, they will be able to understand and appreciate whatever the government is doing,” he said, adding that the government was spending about RM200,000 annually to provide transport, uniforms and other necessities to encourage the Penan children to attend classes. -Bernama