BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

THE Ministry of Education (MoE) has introduced a programme that identifies underperforming pupils and places them at a hostel to monitor their progress.

The ministry has identified 15 schools that recorded poor attendance and unsatisfactory academic results among students for the PSR-Oriented Catalyst School Programme.

Permanent Secretary of Core Education Dr Hj Junaidi Hj Abd Rahman said the ministry would offer parents the opportunity to allow their children stay at the hostel of Duli Pengiran Muda Mahkota Al-Muhtadee Billah College (MD) under the programme.

Currently, 85 students from all four districts are residing at the hostel where they are provided education on-site as well as caretakers, food and drinks, laundry services as well as transport to send them home during weekends and public holidays.

“Looking closely, these catalyst schools are usually located in the city areas and in places where there is a dense population. These schools have been identified with having problems with students’ attendance level,” he added.

Dr Hj Junaidi said student attendance has a direct impact on student performance, especially in primary education as it can affect the student’s progress at a higher level.

“If they (students) don’t attend school often then it will affect their studies, as a result they are not able to achieve good results,” he said during a sharing session to improve public exam results at Lambak Kanan Jalan 49 Primary School.

In a speech to parents and Year Six students, he said MoE is working closely with the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in enforcing the Compulsory Education Act 2007, which requires children born on or after January 1, 2002, to attend formal education in either government or private schools registered with the ministry.

Speaking on PSR results, the permanent secretary said previous reports stated that Mathematics and Science contributed to most of the students’ failure in the public examination.

Dr Hj Junaidi said MoE has assigned several Mathematics and Science secondary teachers to the 15 “catalyst schools” to build the capacity of primary schools in teaching these subjects.

He added that the ministry has also advised these schools to increase the number of teaching hours for the core subjects, especially Mathematics and Science, which all the 15 “catalyst schools” have done.

The permanent secretary said the ministry has advised schools to divide the Year Six students into small groups and conduct one-to-one teaching with them, to improve the students’ learning process.

Dr Hj Junaidi said MoE will be observing the schools and guide them to ensure the new initiatives would help improve the students’ performance.

He further said the ministry hopes the initiative can be expanded to students from Year One to Five to allow for early intervention.

The Brunei Times