By Adrian Lim
KUCHING, Feb 1: SJK (C) Chung Hua Miri has won the first runner-up placing at the National Junior Innovate (JI) 2020 competition yesterday.
The team from the school narrowly lost to the DT Girls team from Melaka.
The organiser of the competition, Chumbaka Sdn Bhd (Chumbaka) in a press statement today said four out of the top six spots were won by teams from Sarawak.
It disclosed the teams were SJK (C) Chung Hua (Miri), SJK (C) Thai Kwang (Sibu), SJK (C) Sacred Heart (Sibu) and SJK (C) Hock Lam (Kapit).
Chumbaka said SJK (C) Thai Kwang (Sibu) clinched the third runner up in the competition while SJK (C) Sacred Heart (Sibu) and SJK (C) Hock Lam (Kapit) were awarded with commendation prizes.
The other Sarawakian teams which received the Gold and Silver awards were SJK (C) Hock Lam (Kapit), SK St Francis Xavier (M) (Kanowit), SJK (C) Yee Ting (Kanowit), SK Trusan (Lawas), SJK (C) Chung Hua Sambir (Samarahan), SJK (C) Chuang Hua No.3 (Kuching), SJK (C) Chung Hua No. 4 (Kuching) and SJK (C) Chung Hua No. 5 (Kuching).
Chumbaka said a total of 30 teams were competing for the National Gold and Silver awards at the National JI 2020 competition while vying to be crowned the top to sixth teams in Malaysia.
Commenting on the final results of the competition, Chumbaka Centre’s coordinator Haslina Malek said, “I am truly amazed by the standards and quality of the students’ projects for Junior Innovate 2020.
“More impressively, we are seeing many rural schools in Sarawak taking up the challenge in 2020 to create coding with technology,” she said.
Meanwhile, Sarawak Digital Economy Corporation (SDEC)’s innovation and entrepreneurship head Hazwan Razak said, “What we are doing together here, with all the partners, is something really important for the students, and we hope that more partners from all the other states join us in supporting our students’ education,” he said.
In the meantime, the national host for this year’s competition, SDEC, has agreed to continue their collaboration with all partners to support even more Sarawakian schools to participate in 2021 Junior Innovate, as part of their mandate to further develop the Sarawak digital and innovation ecosystem.
Schools that are keen to participate are required to register their interest at http://bit.ly/jiandyic2021.
As for the national JI 2020 competition, Chumbaka said students were given five minutes to pitch their projects with the theme “A Game for Change – A Clean and Happy Earth” followed by the question and answer sessions by the judges in the final judging round.
It revealed that the judging panel was seated by representatives from SDEC, Tabungan Ekonomi Gagasan Anak Sarawak (Tegas), Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Research (MESTR), Ministry of Education (MOE), Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), Penang Science Cluster (PSC), Vitrox and OSK Foundation. — DayakDaily
