UK SPORT, BRITISH COUNCIL AND UNICEF DELEGATION VISIT SABAH SCHOOLS

PENAMPANG (Malaysia), March 27 (Bernama) -- A delegation comprising UK
Sport, British Council and Unicef (United Nations Children's Fund)
representatives visited schools in Sabah, an East Malaysia state, to help
promote sports and English.

Education Ministry's deputy director (Policy and Planning) Rosland Hussein
said Unicef had already implemented Supplementary Reading Programmes (SRP) while
the British Council had introduced the 'Dreams and Teams' programme in a number
schools in Sabah.

SRP is a programme to encourage and promote usage of English in rural
schools while the "Dreams and Teams" is a programme aimed at introducing
leadership through sports, with the College of Sabah becoming the first to adopt
the programme in 2003.

"Through the initiatives, sports and the English language will become a
foundation to churn out excellent students. The programmes will be introduced to
other schools that are interested," he told reporters after leading the
delegation to visit SMK Datuk Peter Mojuntin here Thursday.

Though SMK Datuk Peter Mojuntin is recognised as the only sports school in
the state, it lacks qualified trainers in sports, hostel facilities but a
stadium with eight synthetic tracks would be ready by January next year.

"We hope that the visiting delegation would be able to have a first hand
view of what was available in such schools before deciding on what kind of
assistance to be provided," he said.

Meanwhile, SMK Datuk Peter Mojuntin school head Nurani Fauziah Derin
said about 105 athletes train in the school.

--BERNAMA