| Rokiah Mahmud |
SERI Mulia Sarjana School emerged champions in the final round of the Convention for Brunei Entrepreneurship Education Sch-eme (BEES) 2.0 pitching competition at Hua Ho Manggis Mall recently.
This year’s convention was jointly organised by the Ministry of Education, Brunei Shell Petroleum Company Sdn Bhd (BSP) and Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD).
Sixteen schools participated in the programme, with the top six teams competing in the final pitching round.
The Seri Mulia Sarjana School team, which won the championship for their product ‘Eco Bin’ (EB), took home a B$1,000, a trophy and participation and championship certificates.
The first runner up prize of B$750 went to Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Damit Girls Arabic Religious Secondary School for their product ‘Ahsanul Qalansuwah’ while St George’s School won the second runner-up prize of B$500 for their Mr Bin products.
The third runner-up place went to Yayasan Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Secondary School, while St Andrew’s School and Sports School grabbed the fourth and fifth runner-up places respectively.
Pehin Udana Khatib Dato Paduka Seri Setia Ustaz Haji Awang Badaruddin bin Pengarah Dato Paduka Haji Awang Othman, Minister of Religious Affairs, presented the prizes to the winners.
Awards were also presented to teams in various categories. The team from Rimba Secondary School was named the ‘Most Resilient Team’, while Pengiran Isteri Hajjah Mariam Secondary School won the ‘Most Passionate Product’ award. The ‘Most Enthusiastic Team’ award went to Chung Hwa Middle School and the ‘Most Versatile Product’ award was won by Rimba II Secondary School.
In the ‘Most Resourceful Product’ category, Paduka Seri Begawan Sultan Science College was named the winner, while Pehin Datu Seri Maharaja Secondary School won the ‘Most Persistent Team’ award. The other awards went to Sultan Omar ‘Ali Saifuddien College (Most Creative Product award); St John’s School (Most Committed Team award); Sultan Sharif Ali Secondary School (Most Practical Product award); and Sultan Muhammad Jamalul Alam Secondary School (Most Functional Product award).
Earlier in his welcoming address, Acting Director of the Curriculum Development Department Haji Zulkifli bin Haji Md Yunus said that based on feedback, the second edition of BEES this year has seen a major transformation – from an event that merely focusses on preparing accounting and business plans to a well-designed programme to stimulate entrepreneurial attitudes and skills among students.
BEES 2.0 uses a systematic approach by focusing on three key elements of entrepreneurial success, namely creating an entrepreneurial mindset; imparting pragmatic knowledge with application; and nurturing resourceful entrepreneurial students.
Nine government secondary schools, six non-government secondary schools and one Arabic secondary school turned up for the Convention for Brunei Entrepreneurship Education Scheme which saw students from different subject fields such as Accounting, Business, Science, Mathematics, Design and Technology, Arabic Language and other subjects compete in the programme.
The pitching competition was judged based on creativity and innovation, clarity, market potential, sustainable and competitive advantage and persuasion skills and confidence.
The BEES 2.0 programme was first introduced in 2016, following a Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Ministry of Education, BSP and UBD.
The programme was coordinated by the Core Education Team of Entrepreneurship Village (EV) and Universiti Brunei Darussalam, in collaboration with the Curriculum Development Department, Ministry of Education.
EV is an organisation under the National Entrepreneurship Agenda established in February 2014 by the Ministry of Education and is spearheaded by UBD.
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