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We are monitoring progress of differently-abled students: Task force

The Ministry of Education (MoE) and the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports (MCYS), in their capacity as members of the Task Force Education under the COVID-19 Steering Committee, would like to respond to the letter, ‘Differently-abled students left behind in COVID times’, published in the Opinion page of the Bulletin on March 9, in regards to the announcement made during the press conference on March 5 on the closing of schools from March 7-19 and the adoption of fully online learning.

We acknowledge the concerns and limitations that a virtual learning environment can have for certain differently-abled students. Online classes could be nearly impractical without a teacher being physically present, especially for those with social, emotional, behavioural and sensory difficulties, such as low-functioning autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, multiple disabilities and learning disabilities.

To monitor the progress of differently-abled students’ online learning under the MoE, officers from the Department of Special Education communicate actively and liaise directly with special education needs assistance (SENA) or homeroom teachers concerning students with special education needs (SEN). Teachers will then share any information regarding the students’ educational needs, objectives, progress and other matters with parents.

The Department of Special Education has also prepared and uploaded various online resources to the Digital Resources Management System (DRMS) of the MoE, accessible by teachers and parents.

Seventy-four resources, including general information, have been uploaded from different services, such as educational psychology, dyslexia, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, hearing impairment, visual impairment, learning assistance programme and pre-vocational programme. Parents may use these resources as guided instructions and materials for face-to-face learning activities at home.

For some differently-abled students, interacting face-to-face with a teacher in a classroom or a differently-abled (OKU) centre can offer a variety of learning approaches compared to online learning. Even the act of responding to a specific question or just a change in the learning environment can help differently-abled students achieve better focus.

As such, the directive for online learning is not mandatory to Pusat Bahagia and OKU centres under the MCYS, particularly where the intervention programmes offered are part of the students’ therapy.

In allowing the continued operation of OKU centres, the MCYS, through the Community Development Department (JAPEM), in its press statement on March 7, updated the standard operating procedure (SOP) guidelines for entering all premises for Pusat Bahagia and OKU centres in the Sultanate to ensure the safe entry and participation of differently-abled persons.

It is now a requirement to carry out daily antigen rapid test (ART) screening at home and obtain a negative result for COVID-19 prior to entering these centres for staff, students, trainees, parents, guardians and the public.

Meanwhile, the scanning of the BruHealth QR code to identify the permitted green and yellow codes, having a double-dose vaccination status, the practice of social distancing and observing general personal hygiene are still in force.

To further ensure the participation of differently-abled persons in their daily activities, the public, especially parents and families, are advised to observe the current SOPs and instil healthy habits in their children and loved ones.

Task Force Education,
COVID-19 Steering Committee

PayPal expands payments services to help Ukrainian citizens, refugees

CNA – PayPal Holdings Inc has expanded its services to allow Ukrainian citizens and refugees to receive payments from overseas, a move a senior Ukrainian official called a huge help as Russian forces continued to attack the country.

PayPal Chief Executive Dan Schulman told Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov in a letter that Ukrainians would also be able to transfer funds from their PayPal accounts to eligible credit and debit cards. The company has waived its fees on such transactions through June 30.

More than three million Ukrainians have fled the country since Russia launched its invasion on February 24, an action Russia has described as a “special military operation.”

PayPal’s move will allow refugees and Ukrainians to receive funds from friends and family members in the United States and elsewhere, and could also be used to transfer social payments by governments in the future, said Ukraine’s alternative executive director at the International Monetary Fund Vladyslav Rashkovan.

“It makes a huge difference for people,” Rashkovan told Reuters, lauding Schulman’s personal engagement in accomplishing the change in just two weeks.

Rashkovan said he spoke with some Ukrainians on the street outside his office about the new capability and they immediately opened an account at PayPal to send money to their relatives.

Ukrainian officials have been pushing for the expanded services since 2015, after Russia annexed the Crimea region, he added.

PayPal said it made the expanded services available on Thursday, with customers able to send and receive funds from their Ukrainian PayPal Wallet in dollars, Canadian dollars, British pounds and euros.

Country & romantic

AFP/WWD – For his first show in three years, Shinpei Yamagishi chose a traditional Japanese garden as his venue. Models paraded among the trees, and pond, passing over bridges and up a stone staircase in the process.

Yamagishi incorporated country and romantic influences, which he mixed with a modern take on formal wear. Textiles were richly textured and often deeply pigmented: raised, thin stripes in bright orange, white and colourful flecks were seen on trenchcoats, pants and jackets, while a metallic, leaf-patterned jacquard in red and black was used for short-sleeved shirts and pleated, knee-length shorts.

Yamagishi also showed a variety of softly tailored suits: a shimmering navy one, a black version with an off-centre, double-breasted jacket and ankle-length skirt, and a baby blue iteration with wide-legged pants and a leisure-suit-inspired jacket.

Dry season to start late in most parts of Indonesia

THE STAR – Indonesia’s weather agency said yesterday rainfall in the resource-rich country will normalise this year after a wet 2021, but the dry season will start later than usual in most areas due to the lingering effects of the La Nina weather pattern.

More than 70 per cent of the archipelago will see the dry season start late or on time this year, between April and June, as the La Nina weakens gradually, weather agency chief Dwikorita Karnawati said in a news conference.

She said rainfall will be closer to normal this year compared with last year when it was heavier than usual. The dry season is expected to reach its peak in August, she added. With 2022 expected to be drier than last year, the agency has warned local authorities of the potential for forest fires, deputy head of the agency Urip Haryoko said, adding that some hotspots have already been detected in provinces like Acheh, Riau, South and North Sumatra, and West Kalimantan.

Home to the largest rainforests outside the Amazon and Congo, Indonesia regularly experiences forest fires largely because of land clearing for palm and pulp plantations.

In 2019, fires caused haze to blanket the region, prompting 900,000 people to report respiratory illnesses and USD5.2 billion in damage, according to the World Bank.

“The delay of the dry season and normal rainfall could have a good impact on food commodities and plantations,” Haryoko said.

Motorcyclists taking shelter during a heavy downpour in Jakarta. PHOTO: AFP

BND50,000 drawn for lucky winners of savings campaign

Lyna Mohamad

A total of BND50,000 was drawn for five winners of BIBD Aspirasi 4’s first quarterly draw yesterday.

The draw was held virtually and live streamed on BIBD’s official Instagram account. The winners will be announced on BIBD’s social media channels.

Each quarterly winner brings home BND10,000 while another 35 winners will take home BND1,000 each as part of the campaign’s third monthly draw.

The winners were chosen from customers who subscribed to BIBD Aspirasi with a minimum holding period of 90 days and prize winnings will be credited into the winners’ saving accounts.

Now in its fourth cycle, the BIBD Aspirasi programme was introduced to encourage savings.

BIBD’s long-term objective is to ensure that customers continue to save and aim for financial independence, which serves to encourage long-term savings and financial management.

With Aspirasi, customers not only maintain their savings, but are also rewarded with monthly cash, quarterly prizes and the grand prizes.

To qualify for the reward draw, customers are required to maintain a minimum holding period of 90 days, with a minimum holding deposit of BND50 for the entire duration of the programme and deposits held between 181 to 270 days will be entitled to double the number of entries, while deposits held 271 days and more will be entitled to triple the number of entries.

Responding to the success of Aspirasi 3, BIBD has now increased the maximum deposit amount to BND350,000 while maintaining the low minimum deposit of BND50, hence enabling everyone to save and be part of the Aspirasi 4 rewards programme.

The Aspirasi programme is part of BIBD’S aspiration as a Partner in Progress towards building a strong financial foundation and greater financial literacy among members of the public, via encouraging and incentivising the practice of saving which is in line with BIBD’s commitment towards sustainability in alignment with the Maqasid Shariah.

The programme will reward over 400 winners with cash prizes totalling BND870,000 throughout the year.

Argentina Parliament approves IMF deal for USD45B debt

BUENOS AIRES (AFP) – Argentina’s Senate gave final approval to an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that restructures a USD45 billion debt, clearing the country’s short-term financial horizon but leaving a serious inflationary challenge.

The late-night vote greenlights the new credit programme ironed out between Argentine officials and IMF staff as they sought to finalise the debt, the legacy of a record loan contracted in 2018 under former president Mauricio Macri.

Outside the Senate, several hundred people demonstrated, called by unions and leftist movements to oppose the restructuring.

Hadwin, Burns, Vegas and Lipsky share PGA Valspar lead

MIAMI (AFP) – Defending champion Sam Burns closed with back-to-back birdies to match Venezuela’s Jhonattan Vegas, Canada’s Adam Hadwin and United States (US) compatriot David Lipsky for the lead after Thursday’s opening round of the US PGA Valspar Championship.

Burns, Vegas, Lipsky and Hadwin each fired seven-under par 64s at Innisbrook resort’s Copperhead course in Palm Harbor, Florida.

Only Lipsky, chasing his first US PGA title, had a bogey-free round, his longest birdie putt from just outside 10 feet.

“My iron play was excellent. I hit it close a lot,” Lipsky said. “I didn’t really leave myself too many stressful par saves. Drove it relatively straight and that’s a formula to go well.”

The only first-round Valspar leader or co-leader to win the title was South Korean KJ Choi
in 2002.

New Zealand’s Danny Lee and Americans Scott Stallings, Davis Riley and Richy Werenski shared fifth on 65.

World number 17 Burns won his only other PGA title last October at the Sanderson Farms Championship but has fond memories of last year’s victory.

“I’ll look back forever on that event, it being my first win,” Burns said. “Wins don’t happen out here often, so I think it’s good to reflect and just be extremely grateful.”

The 25-year-old American birdied three of four par-five holes and all four par-three holes, the last a tap-in at the 17th after putting an eight-iron shot inches from the cup. Burns made a 14-foot birdie putt at the 18th.

“I honestly thought I missed it,” Burns said. “It hit something and kind of shot a little right halfway. But it caught the right side.”

Hadwin, a 34-year-old back-nine starter who won the 2017 Valpsar title, birdied four of his last five holes. He sank a birdie from beyond 36 feet at the 18th, holed another from beyond 26 feet at the sixth and finished with a birdie putt from just inside 24 feet at the ninth.

“A lot of things went right to shoot 64 around this place,” Hadwin said. “Just a lot of good consistent golf. I wouldn’t say that I felt great off the tee, but I was never in any trouble. I hit it really well.”

COVID pills arrival timely

I would like to applaud the authorities for adding COVID-19 pills to their arsenal of treatments for infected individuals with severe symptoms. The number of new daily cases has been decreasing steadily in the past few days, which is comforting to learn, especially for a community that has endured the rollercoaster ride of a pandemic for two years.

While we have peaked in the third wave, there are still a number of patients in Categories 4 and 5 that need all the medical help they can get. As such, these pills’ arrival couldn’t be timed better.

It is true that more countries have eased their measures. But we are but a small nation with a small population. So it is understandable that the authorities are prudent in their strategies to ensure that there isn’t a fourth wave on the horizon.

Let’s hope the public continues to work together by observing the health protocols. It may seem like we are out of the woods, but for as long as there are people suffering severe symptoms from COVID-19, it is better to be safe than sorry.

Social-Distancing Fan

Oral anti-viral drug Molnupiravir by Merck. PHOTO: AP

NTSB: 13-year-old drove pickup in Texas crash that killed nine

HOBBS, NEW MEXICO (AP) – The investigation into a recent fiery head-on crash in West Texas now focusses on the revelation that a 13-year-old was driving the pickup truck that struck a van, killing nine people, including six members of a college golf team and their coach.

The young teen, who is still unidentified, and a man travelling in the truck also died.

National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Vice Chairman Bruce Landsberg on Thursday revealed the truck was driven by the child. He said the truck’s left front tyre, which was a spare tyre, blew out before impact.

The pickup truck crossed into the opposite lane on the darkened, two-lane highway before colliding head-on with the van. Both vehicles burst into flames.

Although it was unclear how fast the two vehicles were travelling, “this was clearly a high-speed collision”, Landsberg said.

Landsberg said investigators hoped to retrieve enough information from the vehicle’s recorders, if they survived, to understand what happened. He said many in the van were not wearing seatbelts and at least one was ejected from the vehicle. It’s not unusual for young teens to drive in that region and other more rural parts of the United States.

But “that was dumb” for a 13-year-old to be driving on a busy two-lane roadway used by oil traffic, said Gib Stevens, who leads area trucking operations for an oilfield servicing company.

One must be 14 in Texas to start taking classroom courses for a learner’s licence and 15 to receive that provisional licence to drive with an instructor or licenced adult in the vehicle.

Department of Public Safety Sergeant Victor Taylor said a 13-year-old driving would be breaking the law.

The University of the Southwest students, including one from Portugal and one from Mexico, and the coach were returning from a golf tournament when the vehicles collided on Tuesday night.

Two Canadian students were hospitalised in critical condition.

The NTSB sent an investigative team to the crash site in Texas’ Andrews County, about 50 kilometres east of the New Mexico state line.

Hard labour in Chad: The children who make bricks to survive

N’DJAMENA (AFP) – Celestin sweats profusely in the searing heat.

Like dozens of other youngsters in Chad’s capital N’Djamena, the scrawny 13-year-old in rags is up to his knees in mud, making clay bricks.

The teenagers work on a large plot of land in the Waria district near the Chari River in the south of the city.

There are no trees to give shade. Here, in the heart of the Sahel, the Harmattan wind is just a light, dusty breeze.

Celestin, who wishes to go only by his first name, uses his feet to knead clay soil, mixed with water, straw and manure. In exhausting labour, he then fills moulds to fashion the bricks.

“I get back pain,” he said, without looking up from his task.

The lad has been making bricks for a year. For six hours of work a day, he earns around XAF2,500 (USD4.15). “But I have no choice, I have to support myself.”

Celestin works six days a week and lives in a makeshift shack in a nearby district.

A short distance away, Felix, 10, is busy moving the bricks.

Young boys are seen at work at a brick factory in N’Djamena. PHOTO: AFP

He has a puny torso on rickety legs, yet each time he carries up to four bricks – a weight not far from 12 kilogrammes.

“I earn around XAF500 a day (USD0.83). I come here right after school,” he said, out of breath.

Other children, barely older and clad in rags, do the same job.

They are paid by the owner to take the bricks from the place of manufacture to the place of sale.

In recent years, the trade in clay bricks has greatly increased, with the soaring price of cement. Makeshift factories like these have sprouted up throughout the city.

Chad is, according to the United Nations, the third least developed country on the planet. The World Bank estimates that 42 per cent of a population of around 15 million lives below the poverty line.

The central African country has ratified international conventions that ban the labour of children under 14, but “due to economic hardship, many families are forced to let their children work,” said an NGO specialising in the rights of children Humanium.

In a 2018, the group described “very harsh” working conditions for youngsters in Chad, who faced long hours and low wages.

“It’s intolerable to see children working in Chad when they should be in school,” said secretary general of the Chadian Convention on Human Rights Mahamat Nour Ibedou.

“The law is there, but the government does nothing to apply it.”

With dusty clothes and a face spattered in mud, Mahamat, 16, tirelessly repeats the same gestures to mix earth, manure and straw with a shovel as he has done since he was 10 years old.

“I have sore arms all the time,” he said, speaking from a pit. “I earn around XAF500 a day, but I give everything to my mother so that she can feed us, my brothers and me.” Adults too try to survive with earnings from the clay brick business.

“I manage to make 250 (bricks) a day, which brings in a little money, even if it’s not enough to live on,” said Martin Wari, 34, who also works as a primary-school teacher for part of the day.

At 27, Emile Deaonadji is a veteran brickmaker.

He started working at the site in 2010 and today sounds fatalistic.

“Obviously it’s hard, but how do I eat if I don’t do it?”, he asked, near a brick-curing oven that gave off stifling heat and a pungent stench.

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Borneo Bulletin is the leading English daily in the country. It was first published by Brunei Press. Today, Borneo Bulletin has become the foremost source of information on local and foreign affairs, and the region’s business news.

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