65 schools in S’wak join improvement programmeBy Norni Mahadi

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CONGRATULATIONS: Fatimah (third from left) presenting an award to one of the recipients while Aziah (second left), Laing (right), Rosnani (second right) and others look on.

MIRI: A total of 65 schools in Sarawak under Band 6 and Band 7 have been involved in School Improvement Programme (SIP).

Minister in the Chief Minister’s Office Datin Fatimah Abdullah who is also in charge of education said the schools involved are 51 secondary schools and 14 primary schools.

“Starting this year, the SIP achievement is the Key Performance Index (KPI) for the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and the Minister of Education Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin,” she stated in her address when officiating at SMK Riam’s 19th Students Excellence Awards ceremony at Mega Hotel yesterday.

Fatimah pointed out that the KPI saw 20 per cent reduction of schools in Band 6 and Band 7 and the increase of 8 percent of schools in Band 1 and Band 2.

She explained further that SIP is a comprehensive effort which aimed to support schools’ commitment to improve particular students’ performance, thus making the school excellent. It consists of three elements and would be implemented according to School Improvement Grading, School Improvement Tool and Service Line.

The core component of the programme is the School Improvement Tool as it is a user friendly tool which allows the principal or headmaster to track the school’s progress.

Such information is important for the school management to design planning improvement for further action.

The SIP was launched to ensure the success of every student, no principals will be left out from the programme implementation and this ensures the efficiency of National Key Result Areas (NKRA).

“We felt very proud that SM Sains Miri and SK Ulu Lubai recently have been awarded with SBT (School High Performance). The Education Ministry has prepared an action plan to identify 100 SBT by year 2012,” she remarked.

She is looking forward to the implementation of SBT which would help to increase the school’s quality achievement through increasing of autonomy level which enables the school to implement innovation in education (for example organisation management, instructional management, co-curriculum management, financial management and human resource management).

This would in turn produce excellent students of international calibre and inspire other schools which are in the development process towards excellence.

Meanwhile, more than 250 students from the school have received various awards based on respective academic and co-curriculum performance. Four Special Awards have been presented to Ummi Haziqah Morshidi (Nilam Award ), Rosita Insot (Librarian Award), Diana Pellipus (Loyal Library Award) and Kuan Liu Xin (Cooperative Award).

Recipients for Excellence Achievement Awards were Yek Nai Dong for STPM 2010 and Sindy anak Majey for SPM 2010. Also present were Miri Education Officer Rosnani Yunus, SMK Riam principal Aziah Zaki and Laing Uvang the chairman of Parent and Teachers Association (PTA).