James Kon
Katok Secondary School was crowned champion of the 3rd National Cooking Competition for special needs students in Pre-Vocational Programme during a prize presentation ceremony at the Ruang, Yayasan Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Complex yesterday.
Second place went to Sayyidina Othman Secondary School while Perdana Wazir Secondary School was in third place.
Meanwhile, the contest’s Best Participant was Md Soffian bin Julaihe from Sayyidina Othman Secondary School.
The winning team from Katok Secondary School comprised Fairuz Amani binti Azizi, Muhammad Fitri Rahmani bin Mohd Fadillah, Mohammad Nasran Nasrullah bin Haji Hamdi and Siti Nurul Erra Natasha @ Sharifah Nurul binti A Amran. The students were guided by Siti Nur @ Siti Hairani binti Haji Liman, Nurulhazirah binti Ja’afar and Muhd Khairul Rafi’uddin bin Haji Omar Ali Ra’aie.
The teachers, in an interview, said, “The students did well in the competition. We are proud of their hard work. Besides learning during the cooking class, the students also practiced preparing different dishes. Teamwork allowed them to cope with the pressure of limited preparation time.”
Eight secondary schools made it to the competition’s final stage on November 5, where the students had to prepare three types of cuisine – fried rice, cupcakes and jelly.
Five judges comprising cooking teachers from Institute of Brunei Technical Education (IBTE) and chefs from Royal Brunei Culinary (RBC) and Syarikat De Pirate were invited.
A prize presentation for the 2nd Bootcamp Project for Pre-Vocational Programme students was also held during the ceremony.
Permanent Secretary (Core Education) at the Ministry of Education (MoE) Dr Shamsiah Zuraini Kanchanawati binti Haji Tajuddin presented the prizes to the two programmes organised by the MoE through the Department of Special Education.
For the Bootcamp Project, the Most Persevering Award went to Menglait Secondary School, Most Passionate Award to Sayyidina Ali Secondary School and Most Innovative Award to Sayyidina Abu Bakar Secondary School.
The Bootcamp Project is an entrepreneurship and innovation education competition for special needs students in the Pre-Vocational Programme conducted in collaboration with the Entrepreneurship Innovation Centre (EIC), MoE.
Thirteen schools participated in the Bootcamp Project this year.
Acting Head of the Special Education Unit at the Department of Special Education Eddy Fazlin bin Haji Amdan, the Chairman of the ceremony, highlighted that competitions are held to improve the potential of students with special needs, especially in the fields of culinary and entrepreneurship.
“The field of cooking and entrepreneurship is also among the skills that are incorporated in the Pre-Vocational Programme Curriculum as one of the steps in preparing students to enter the world of employment,” he said.
The ceremony was enlivened with a Demo Day activity where products from the Bootcamp Project were exhibited and sold.
The involvement of Pre-Vocational Programme students in the two competitions was to improve the skills that they have learnt in school.
Also present were heads of departments and senior officials from the MoE, guests, school leaders, supervising teachers and students.
