BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

A PROGRAMME to mentor young students from selected schools in Kampong Ayer has shown a level of success despite running only for the past two years.

Initiated by the Paduka Seri Begawan Science College, the programme known as “MS Sayang” is a community outreach programme that enlists the help of pre-university students from the college not only to motivate and assist students but to also bond with them.

The Coordinator of “MS Sayang” Community Outreach Programme 2014, Dr Roslena PDIS Hj Johari told _The Brunei Times _that the aim of the programme was to help the students being mentored to obtain five-grade As in their PSR examinations this October 13th.

However, they have yet to achieve their target.

“There has been some academic progress, unfortunately, none have reached this goal. Nonetheless, it has been successful because we have seen their grades increased and this is very good for a programme that is still young,” said Dr Roslena, adding that some students shown improvements by increasing their grades from Cs to Bs and some even to As.

The programme is being implemented in two schools: Hj Tarif Primary School and the Tanjong Kindana Primary School. The mentoring began since the first school term and is expected to be carried out for the whole academic year.

Subjects being reviewed are English, Math and Science and sessions are mentoring sessions are held every Friday morning.

“It provides good exposure to our students from Maktab Sains as they are exposed to different lifestyles and walks of life. We try our best to teach them humility and respect and to give our students real-time issues and challenges as they reach out to society,” said the programme coordinator.

“A mutual benefit is here. They can develop leadership and once they go into it, they will find that the relationship they have with the young students is actually different from a teacher-student but for them, they would be big brothers or sisters to these young students,” explained Dr Roslena.

She said that while the programme sought to motivate the young students to improve their academic perfomance, it also aimed to make an impact in the lives of the mentors.

She added the roles of the parents were as important in the success of having the college students help others.

“I am grateful to the parents for the commitment they have shown to help their children take part in this programme. One day, the benefits of the programme will definitely be seen.”

The programme includes 60 mentors who cater to 80 students where each mentor will be assigned one or two young students.

The Brunei Times