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Saturday, 22nd May 2010. Brunei LNG today presented Academic Excellence Awards to 150 best students from primary, religious and secondary schools for the Belait District. This includes the presentation of awards to children of Brunei LNG and Refinery employees who achieved excellent result in public examinations in 2009. The presentation ceremony was held at the multipurpose hall, Liang Lumut Recreation Club in Lumut. The guest of honour was Yang Mulia Haji Awang Mohd. Mahdi bin Pehin Orang Kaya Di Gadong Seri Diraja Dato Laila Utama Haji Awang Abdul Rahman, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, Brunei Darussalam. This is the first time Brunei LNG extended the awards and recognitions to best students in government and private schools in the Belait district, in which the previous years were only limited to Liang Lumut area students studying at government schools.
The event was organised in collaboration with the host school for this year, the Lumut Primary School. It began with the welcoming remarks by the chairman of the organising committee, Cikgu Hjh Sediah binti Madeli. In her welcoming remarks, she extended her invaluable appreciation to Brunei LNG for such awards and recognitions. She reiterated that such awards and recognitions are testimony for Brunei LNG’s caring on the Belait communities’ academic developments and achievements. Moreover she hoped that Brunei LNG would continue to support the community in the academic development in the Belait district, and further would set an example to other organisations in the country. The event also aimed to give incentive and motivation to students to perform well in their study.
Meanwhile, the guest of honour, Yang Mulia Haji Awang Mohd Mahdi bin Pehin Orang Kaya Di Gadong Seri Diraja Dato Laila Utama Haji Awang Abdul Rahman in his speech congratulated all those awarded students and teachers on their academic excellence and best performance awards. The appreciation also extended to parents and guardians of the awarded students. The guest of honour also extended his gratitude to Brunei LNG for giving the award that could serve as a driver and enthusiasm to other students. He also advice all students to continuously look for excellence as this would not only beneficial to the students themselves but would act as a guidance to become an important role model in religion, race and nation. He said excellence has a direct relationship with individual personality, in which some of the criteria include respects and love to parents, guardians and teachers, concerns on the surrounding communities and environment, interested in the subjects and helping colleagues in education. These criteria would be effective if the students completely practise determination and initiatives to hard work, and at the same time pray to Allah Subhanahu Wataala. The guest of honour also confident that, a lot of sacrifices required in terms of time, energy and effort in order to become a successful and outstanding individual.
On top of that, he also reminded students to acquire other skills outside school that could assist individual to become a successful and outstanding student. In addition, he mentioned that acquiring ancillary skills could be an added value for the students, especially at this age whereby competition in academic become an increasingly challenging that require more diligent and discipline students.
In terms of challenges, the guest of honour highlighted, students are exposed to the easy access of the Internet that has become a source of information and knowledge. According to statistics issued by the Authority Info-Communications Technology Industry, or AITI, in 2009, the country has achieved Internet Users Penetration of 78.50% from 67.07% in 2008 and 44.68% in 2007. This clearly shows that the rate and the growing trend of Internet use among people in this country, in addition, the total increase in percentage is also high among the youth and student groups. In this respect, parents and guardians are reminded to continuously monitor their children’s activities online that could divert them into immoral and unhealthy social activities, such as indulging in an incorrect way with social media platforms such as Facebook and Tweeters etc. In this regard, networking and collaboration from all parties need to be strengthened and enhanced , and at the same time to place greater emphasis on religious education in the country.
These efforts are in line with the decrees made by His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam during his visit to college Seri Begawan Religious Teaching University earlier this year, among others, His Majesty emphasized that religious subject to be made compulsory in the SPN21, and to ensure that there is no gap between those who are literate in religion on one hand and to those who are religious illiterate on the other, highlighted the guest of honour.
He concluded that anything which could create damage to the country should be avoided completely, especially those matters that affecting religious education. He further reminded all relevant government agencies and interested parties not to neglect welfare activities. Carelessness, lack of focus and deficiency in religious education could bear consequences, and it would affect the human capital where students could become the victim.
Presentation of awards and certificates to 114 public examinations students that include children of employees of Brunei LNG and Refinery was made by the guest of honour Haji Awang Mohd. Mahdi bin Pehin Orang Kaya DiGadong Seri Diraja Dato Laila Utama Haji Awang Abdul Rahman Meanwhile, Brunei LNG Corporate Affairs Manager, Hj Mahri bin Matahir, presented the awards and certificates to 36 students in the primary school level.
The award ceremony also witnessed the presentation of Best Teachers category in every subjects in the Public Examinations. Brunei LNG’s Managing Director/CEO Hj Salleh Bostaman in Hj Zainal Abidin consented to present the awards to 21 teachers who received Brunei LNG Best Performance Award Based on Examination Results.
The event, in its eighth year is one of Brunei LNG’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for the Belait district community and its employees aims to motivate and give incentives to students in achieving academic excellence.
After the presentation ceremony, the guest of honour then toured an exhibition participated by the 3rd Battalion of the Land Force, Royal Brunei Armed Forces , Health and Agriculture Department, SPARK and Brunei LNG’s Human Resources and Recruitment department.
The event concluded with a group photo session with the guest of honour and the best teachers and the recipients. |
