On 5th April 2010, some of you, especially those students who take Bahasa Melayu, may have noticed six Singaporean teachers arrive for two weeks’ teaching practice in the Sultanate.
Cikgu Norhayati bte Awang from The Catholic Junior College and Cikgu Siti Atiqah bte Punari from Jurong Junior College were among the six teachers who were posted to the three sixth form centres in the capital to teach Bahasa Melayu. Cikgu Norhayati bte Awang and Cikgu Siti Atiqah bte Punari were posted to PTEK while Cikgu Halimah bte Rahmat and Cikgu Rosemah bte Rashid did their teaching practice at PTE Meragang and Cikgu Aziyanti bte Muhd Mudakir and Cikgu Zaibah bte Muhd spent their two weeks at Maktab Duli. These teachers were supervised by Cikgu Fadilah bte Isnin, their supervisor.
For those of you who are wondering just what a junior college is, it is another term for a sixth form centre. Students who go to a junior college are there to study for their A Levels and the equivalents of BEs and AEs in these institutions are JC1 (Junior College 1) and JC2.
The teachers were part of an immersion programme (The Inaugural Immersion Programme for Malay Junior College Teachers) organised by the Ministry of Education in Singapore. This programme was held from 4th April until 18th April with the aim of immersing the selected teachers in Bruneian culture to enable them to learn more about Brunei’s rich culture, its people and the Malay Language. At the same time, these teachers were able to share their ideas and experiences in teaching the subject with local teachers.
During their time at the three sixth form centres in question, the six teachers said that they had been given a warm welcome by the students and that they had felt completely at ease. They remarked that the students in Brunei were really positive about learning and that they didn’t really see any discipline problems. Their first impression of the schools they were posted to was that the infrastructure was modern and the facilities were almost on a par with Singapore’s. They also learned new Bruneian words such as bah, for them as opposed to flood in Standard Malay and ambung which means sombong. They were also surprised to hear Bruneians using the word kita as a personal pronoun for you and not us as in Standard Malay.
While they were in Brunei, they attended several talks and seminars at PTEM, PTEK, UBD and the Dewan Bahasa and Pustaka. However, it was not all work as the six visiting teachers got the chance to go to Ulu Temburong and have dinner with the people there.
It is no wonder that all six teachers stated enthusiastically that they had enjoyed their time in Brunei and that they would love to make another visit if the opportunity arose.
Name: Cikgu Norhayati bte Awang
Experience and background: a Malay teacher who teaches at the Catholic Junior College. She is in charge of the Malay Cultural Society and has been a teacher at the college for ten years.
Name: Cikgu Siti Atiqah bte Punari
Experience and background: also a Malay teacher. She taught at a secondary school for one and a half years, teaching students from Form 1 to Form 4, before taking study leave to do a degree at the University of Malaysia to study Malay Language and Literature, as well as Linguistics, in greater depth. On completing her course, she went to the Johor Junior College to teach Malay Language and Literature and was the only Malay member of staff.
Their last quote before leaving PTE Katok was: “Grab every learning opportunity that comes your way, because it may not knock on your door again!”
They also left a Malay poem for all the PTE Katok family:
Sememangnya indah
Bila dirimu peramah
Sememangnya indah
Tiap kali kita bergurau mesra
Sememangnya resah
Bila diri terpaksa berpisah
Sememangnya resah
Tiap kali pujuk hati tetap tiada lega
Hendakku tipu tidak boleh
Untuk melupakanmu amatlah susah!
Roughly translated this poem says:
It was indeed wonderful
Your kindness
It was indeed wonderful
Every time we had fun together
However, it is really hard
Now that we are forced to part.
Both teachers wish to say thank you for all the support, generosity and kindness of all the staff and students of PTE Katok during their stay in Brunei.
