Macgress and Nabiatul pose for a photo call.
KUCHING (Dec 15): SK Temong students Macgres Sawet and Nabiatul Dania Zulfiqa Mohd Zulfadhli, who recently bagged an international award for their animated short film, could receive special assistance from the Ministry of Education (MOE) to further develop their talent.
Education Minister Dr Radzi Jidin told the Dewan Rakyat sitting today that he took note of the achievement made by Macgres and Nabuatul in winning an award at the Alvorado International Schools Film Festival in Brazil
“Regarding students who had won awards at the international level, what the Ministry currently implements is to look at their potential. Sometimes we come across those who are from rural areas with outstanding abiility.
“We at the Ministry will look at how we can assist so that their potential can be optimised,” said Radzi in his winding up speech for 2021 Budget committee level for MOE
According to Radzi, MOE has allocations for students selected to international tournaments sanctioned by the ministry including sporting events.
The minister was replying to Serian MP Dato Sri Richard Riot Jaem who had earlier asked Radzi if MOE would give special incentives or even consider scholarships to both Macgres and Nabiatul for winning the international award despite coming from a rural school.
“They are only in Standard 5 yet they were able to bring honours to the country. Another noteworthy thing is that Magres is a Bidayuh, while Nabiatul a Malay. They showed that even in a rural school in Sarawak, unity is strongly shown in spirit and action,” he added.
In a separate statement, Riot, who is also Prime Minister’s Special Envoy to East Asia, congratulated SK Temong, a rural school in Serian, for doing Malaysia proud by winning the award through Macgres and Nabiatul.
Macgres and Nabiatul were declared winners of the Best Film By Popular Jury’ in the primary school category at the film festival also known as ‘Festival de Cinema Escola de Alvorada’ (FECEA).
They won through their film called ‘Batuh Bijanji’ (Promise Stones in Bidayuh) which tells the story of two childhood friends, Bibi and Sarah.
FECEA, a festival that recognises audiovisual works at the school level, was held online and the voting was held from Nov 17 to 28 at FECEA RS YouTube channel.
The award presentation was also held online via ‘Google Meet’ on Nov 28, and the trophy was sent by post.
Both Macgres and Nabiatul took 10 days to produce the film using the rotoscoping technique that animators use to trace over motion picture footage, frame-by-frame, to produce realistic action.
The project was started last year after they attended a Digital Storytelling Animation workshop organised by the State Education Technology Division, Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Research, and Sarawak Multimedia Authority (SMA).
On Sunday, Education, Science and Technological Research Minister Datuk Amar Michael Manyin Jawong announced both Macgres and Nabiatul will receive incentives from the state in recognition of their achievements.
He had also said plans are in the pipeline to upgrade SK Temong, one of the bigger schools in Tebedu constituency, with another school block.
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