Bandar Seri Begawan - A young student who wants to be a policeman and another student with a dream of becoming a doctor portrayed their ambitions in two separate drawings and were crowned the winners in the upper primary and lower primary categories of the Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) drawing competition with the theme "My Ambition". The competition, entitled "Save & Build", was held in partnership with the Ministry of Education for the second year running.

Jason Khoo Lik Wei of Seri Mulia Sarjana School won the upper primary category (Years Four to Six) with his drawing of a policeman.

In an interview, he said, "I've always wanted to be a policeman to bring peace to the nation. It's also cool to catch thieves like on TV."

It took Jason three weeks to complete his work of art with the help of his mother, Jong Nyuk Hua. The 10-yearold received B$1,000 for winning first place.

Meanwhile, first place in the lower primary category went to nine-year-old Alvin Bong Jia Lok of Chung Hwa Middle School. His ambition is to become a surgeon.

Alvin said, "I want to save lives and I am not afraid of blood. I hope to cure people in the future."

It took him three days to complete his drawing and he hoped to use some of the $1,000 prize money to buy some clothes while the remaining money will be put in savings.

Presenting the prizes to the winners as guest of honour was Pg Hjh Sarah binti Pg Hj Kamaludin, the Acting Director General of Education at the Ministry of Education.

Second place in the upper primary category went to Jackson Ho Yii Kin from Seri Mulia Sarjana School, while Kelly Tee Gi Em, also from Seri Mulia Sarjana School, took third.

In the lower primary category, second place went to Calvin Lim Jia Jun of Stella School and third place went to Eric Bong Cheng Liang of Chung Hwa Middle School.

The consolation prizes for the Brunei-Muara District went to Yeo Yeo of St Andrew's School (upper primary category) and Muhammad Nur Fadhli bin Noralimin of PGGMB Sungai Akar (lower primary category).

For Tutong District, the consolation prizes went to Haidahtuk Aleeyah binti Abdul Rashid of Tumpuan Telisai Primary School (upper primary category) and Yasyarfshazuan bin Yalim of Binuran Primary School (lower primary category).

For Belait District, the consolation prizes were won by Aida Afiqah binti Muhd Aimanuddin of Chung Hua Middle School (upper primary category) and Jadrien Lo Wei Xiang of Chung Hua Middle School (lower primary category).

In Temburong District, Mohamad Zawawi bin Mohamed Santra won the consolation prize for the lower primary category while there was no winner for the upper primary category.

The CEO of Standard Chartered Bank Brunei, Lai Pei-Si, in her welcoming remarks said, "As parents, we always want the best for our children and we do our best to bring them up with a strong foundation in values, knowledge and skills through the various lessons we provide at home as well as providing them with education. By cultivating good money management habits in our children, they will grow up with sound money management skills that will help them achieve their financial goals as well as contribute to the overall health and wealth of our nation."

She continued, "We were thrilled to know that the campaign was well received by the community with a 90 per cent increase in entries compared to last year. What was even more exciting was the amount of creative and artistic talent out there. All the submissions were all of high-quality and come judging, the judges had a very challenging time to select the winners."

Eng Siok Tin, General Manager of Wealth Management of SCB said, "The 'My Ambition' campaign is designed to nurture and inspire students to think of their future aspirations as well as the importance of financial literacy by incorporating fun ways in learning about money through interesting activities."

Working hand-in-hand with the Ministry of Education, Standard Chartered Bank reached out to more than 40,000 students nationwide in all primary schools.

During the event, the bank also expressed its gratitude and appreciation to the Ministry of Education for the strong support in areas of financial literacy programmes for both primary and secondary schools.

--Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin