SHAH ALAM - Five schools in Malaysia have won the Sinar Bestari S.M.A.R.T School Award (ASSSB) and brought back cash prizes amounting RM50,000 today.
The award was mainly to encourage students' interest in venturing into science and technology.
It was introduced for the first time this year to give recognition to schools that possessed the S.M.A.R.T characteristics.
A total of RM50,000 cash prizes were offered to the winners for five categories which were Primary School (rural and urban categories), Secondary Scool (rural and urban categories) and the Special Jury Award.
The schools that won the award were Sekolah Kebangsaan Chopin, Perak, Sekolah Kebangsaan Pos Dipang, Perak, Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Aminudin Baki, Kuala Lumpur and Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Saujana Utama, Sungai Buloh.
The award was to support the Education Ministry's desire to achieve the National Education Philosophy.
It was also to support the schools to always be competitive in its development and to become the best, besides to support the teachers so that they would be able to consistently provide creative and innovative ideas in the teaching and learning process.
Science, Technology and Innovation (Mosti) Deputy Minister Datuk Ahmad Amzad Hashim said the ministry has always supported any kinds of effort that encourages students to increase their interest in the science, technology, engineering and mathemics (STEM) field.
"What is being organised by Sinar Bestari is in line with our desire to increase students' interest in venturing into fields in science and technology.
"So the question of green light should not arise because we always encourage activities involving education," he said at the event held at Concorde Hotel, here, today.
On education and innovation, Amzad said Mosti's Malaysia Techlympics 2022 competition which offers prizes up to RM500,000 has reached a million participations nationwide.
"This is one of the biggest programmes implemented by Mosti involving students at the school level.
"We have received participations from all over the country involving one million participants and we even have a digital reach of up to 17 million," he added.