KOTA KINABALU: English and Science continue to be subjects posing great difficulties to two Primary Six students from the interiors of Sabah.
Caroline Jitor of SK Terian and Alessandra from SK Togudon both cited having high dreams of becoming a doctor and a teacher respectively, but they are struggling with the two subjects.
“I find English very hard to understand. And Science is a very difficult subject to grasp,” she said.
Caroline concurred with Alessandra. “I don’t know how to answer the questions posed. I don’t even understand it,” she sighed.
Both girls would be sitting for the Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah examination which is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, next week.
They were met during the KFC and HSBC Bank Malaysia Berhad joint tea party for underprivileged children at “The Summit” near here yesterday, being part of the 30 students selected from four schools to take part in a tour to Lokkawi Zoo and Petrosains near here.
The students were from SK Terian, SK Buayan, SK Longkogungan and SK Togudon. The schools are located along the Crocker Range valley in the heartland of Penampang.
Alessandra also mentioned that her village is not equipped with electricity supply but power is generated using a generator set that is not always switched on.
“Most of the time it is off,” she said.
When asked if she had a television set at home, she said there was none.
“What is the use of having one?” she asked.
She also said Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Tan Sri Bernard Giluk Dompok had promised the villagers that they would have electricity supply in September, this year.
“I have yet to see it. It is now September and there is still no news of it,” she said.
She also said she meets her family once a week as she now stays at the school hostel.
Caroline, who also resides at the school hostel, said power was generated using a mini-hydro at the village.
“We do have power supplied to our house and we have a television too. I get to watch educational channels, among others,” she said.
SK Longkogungan principal Masdi Ahmad Mus when met said, that absenteeism was still a problem at his school, and he blamed the long journey students had to endure as the main contributing factor.
“Those who live nearby are not faced with the issue but there are some residing three hours’ walk away, and some have to go through rivers,” he said.
HSBC area director for East Malaysia, Ong Eng Mun, said the event yesterday was part of the bank’s corporate social responsibility programme and they encouraged their staff to take part in such programmes.
Among the programmes they had taken part in was the peer programme which is basically to look into the training of teachers so that they could improve in their teaching, as well as the ‘wishes’ programme where they reach out to terminally ill patients and try to grant their wishes.
KFC (Sabah) Sdn Bhd marketing, public liaison and catering manager Datin Anna Au said they had organised a similar function last year but with a smaller group.