Rimbun Education Programme should include schools in rural areas: Kamalanathan

PUTRAJAYA: The Rimbun Education Programme (REP) should be enhanced and expanded to more schools in the rural areas to benefit more target groups, said Deputy Education Minister Datuk P. Kamalanathan.
He said the Education Ministry supported new ideas and new programmes in collaboration with corporate bodies which enabled the students to be exposed to various interesting activities, gain new knowledge and relate what they had learnt with the outside world.
"Rimbun Capital Sdn Bhd's collaboration with the Institute of Teacher Education Malaysia is an example on how government entity and corporate body can cooperate in creating value for the community in particular the education system," he said in his speech during the appointment of mentors and REP model handing over ceremony to 50 students from 10 schools at the Education Ministry here today.
REP is a fun learning programme, which focuses on weak students in English, Mathematics and Bahasa Melayu in vernacular schools. Its objective is to produce students who have good academic qualification together with intelligence and self-determination through fun learning.
Under this programme, a total of 22 Institute of Teacher Education Malaysia students will visit participating schools three hours weekly to conduct REP activities.
For 2017, a total of 25 students from each school are selected to participate in REP and out of the 25, five outstanding students will be selected as mentors to guide other four average or weak students.
From an initial four schools with 100 students in 2015, this year the programme involves 10 schools with 250 students.
Among the schools participating in this year's REP programme are Sekolah Rendah Jenis Kebangsaan Tamil (SJKT) Vivekanda, SJKT Jalan Fletcher, Sekolah Rendah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina (SJKC) Salak Selatan and Sekolah Kebangsaan Gombak. — Bernama