Bandar Seri Begawan - Sekolah Tinggi Perempuan Raja Isteri (STPRI) has succeeded in promoting and instilling a stronger interest in Brunei history among its students with its History Week 2009 exhibition which informed and entertained guests and teachers alike yesterday.

Abdullah Pg Hj Tengah, Director of the Curriculum Development Department, who launched the exhibition yesterday commended the students for their effort in the exhibition.

He said that the students told him they enjoyed the event and became more interested in history after being involved in the entire process of planning and setting up the exhibition.

"This shows that we must take the initiative and adopt strategies to impart more varied teaching methods to teachers. We will then be able to gain the interest of the students and let them understand the importance of history in their curriculum," he said.

Asked about his impression of the exhibition, he said, "My impression? Very impressive!"

Jenny Ang, Principal of STPRI, said in her speech that it was quite sad to note that interest in history has slowly waned over the years, and it is for this reason that the school felt strongly about promoting the subject to instil a stronger interest in learning history among students.

The people behind the exhibition were Hjh Noraini Hj Abd Rahman, Head of History Department, and Ong Lee Suan, a teacher at the school, who revealed that more than 100 students participated in the preparation of the event, and that the planning took them more than one month.

They held competitions among students to solicit artworks, bookmarks and replicas of historical artifacts for the exhibition. They also had other cluster schools sending their teams to support the exhibition.

The Ministry of Education segregates schools in the Sultanate by clusters, and Maktab Sains Paduka Seri Begawan Sultan, Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien (Soar) College, Menglait Secondary School and Sultan Hassan Secondary School, Bangar are in the same cluster as STPRI.

Asked on methods used in cultivating interest in history among students, they said that besides the numerous activities conducted at school they also frequently organised field trips for students to archaeological sites in the Sultanate.
So far the students have visited Limau Manis, a site where a Chinese ship sank more than a thousand years ago Artifacts found from the site are on exhibition in STPRI with permission from the Brunei Museum.

The exhibition is open to the public and ends on November 21. -- Courtesy of The Brunei Times

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