Local Trio Shares Stories of Inspiration to Awang Semaun Secondary School Students

Marina Chek binti Haji Bujang, the Acting Senior Special Duties Officer (Professional) at the Department of Schools of the Ministry of Education, in a group photo with Awang Semaun Secondary School officials and the three writers – Haji Mohd Rozan bin Dato Paduka Haji Mohd Yunos, a well-known local writer; Nellie binti Dato Paduka Haji Sunny, President of the Brunei Darussalam Library Association (BLA); and Kamarul Dzaman Ajimain of GeekInWhite.com

Local trio shares stories of inspiration
October 20, 2017

| James Kon |

TO CELEBRATE World Reading Day and foster interest in reading and writing, Awang Semaun Secondary School on Wednesday invited three prominent figures from the local literary community to share inspiring stories with its Year 9 students.

The speakers for the sharing session – organised by the literacy committee of the school and held at the school library – were Haji Mohd Rozan bin Dato Paduka Haji Mohd Yunos, a well-known local writer; Nellie binti Dato Paduka Haji Sunny, President of the Brunei Darussalam Library Association (BLA); and Kamarul Dzaman Ajimain of GeekInWhite.com.

Marina Chek binti Haji Bujang, the Acting Senior Special Duties Officer (Professional) at the Department of Schools of the Ministry of Education, attended as the guest of honour.

In his talk titled ‘Read & Write’, Haji Mohd Rozan highlighted the importance of reading and writing, explaining that “writing is a tool to communicate and convey your message to express your knowledge, opinions and feelings. Writing is also cost-free; the only cost might be the Wi-Fi and writing can also bring income through the writing of books or articles. ”

Stressing the importance of good writing skills, he said, “Your future progression in your career will also depend on how well you can write reports, letters or memos.”

As for the benefits of reading, he stated that “it helps one gain new ideas and knowledge, as well as improve writing skills,” and that he “loves to read science fiction books” as they “are more fun to read and in simpler language”.

Nellie, meanwhile, stressed on the importance of making use of a library in her talk titled ‘Transformation of School Libraries,’ while Kamarul touched on the importance of social media platforms in writing, in his talk titled ‘My Social Media Journey’.

Awang Semaun Secondary School Principal Siti Marienah binti Haji Umar highlighted the literacy programmes and activities which have taken place at the school.

“The literacy committee in the school has had a great year in 2017. In March, we launched the 2017 literacy programme through a mass silent reading exercise in the hall where we involved every member of the school community including non-teaching staff,” the principal said.

“In April, we celebrated UNESCO’s World Book and Copyright Day throughout the school with a book awareness event in the hall and departmental parallel sessions throughout the school.”

Nellie also mentiond of the success of the book donation programme, which saw embassies and high commissions in the country (the US, Oman, Singapore, Germany and Qatar) as well as a number of individuals donating books to the school.

“We also recently ran word recognition tests on a number of students to determine their reading age. With the results, we have planned a number of interventions. One of this is to go back to basics with students who achieved a lower reading age. With the help of both our international and local coaches, we have prepared a programme which is suited to and helps us reach our goal.”

She added, “We believe that through mastering the basics, the students will be able to easily improve their comprehension in their daily literary endeavours.”

The prime aim of this sharing session event is to inspire students by giving them awareness of the importance of reading and to show them the different types of publications available, as well as to give the students the opportunity to meet the authors behind the publications.

Also included during the event was the launch of a Book Donor Wall and the His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Haji Omar ‘Ali Saifuddien Sa’adul Khairi Waddien, Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam’s Accession to the Throne Golden Jubilee Gallery.

Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin