The Royal Brunei Airlines, Thursday came under the scrutiny of the Minister of Communications, Pehin Dato Seri Setia Haji Abu Bakar. The Minister’s working visit was to see personally and up-close facilities available at the Engineering Maintenance Department and review the company’s aircraft maintenance and operation in its safety of airworthiness aspects. During the visit to the Engineering Maintenance Department, RBA management authorities gave a presentation on the regulatory requirements set by the Brunei Department of Civil Aviation and the European Aviation Safety Agency, or EASA by which the airlines is governed. Included in the presentation was an overview of the Air Services Agreement route performances. The briefing was followed by a closed-door meeting.

The Minister’s itinerary included a tour of the maintenance facilities in both hangars including a glimpse of a third party customer aircraft maintenance owned by the Royal Nepal Airlines. The visit then proceeded to the Training Centre to view the Flight Simulator Training facilities and other relevant departments of the airport. Accompanying the Minister was his deputy, Dato Paduka Haji Yusof bin Haji Abdul Hamid, and his Permanent Secretary, Dato Paduka Haji Mohammad Yussof bin Haji Mohammad Hassan.

The project consists of three workshops which started last year. The first workshop held last September, exposed the participants to methods and concept of indicators collection especially for research and development. The second part held last November, was to address problems encountered in the collection of Science and Technology and Research and Development data; and the final workshop held this month was to discuss experiences and a proposed action to improve the data collection.

According to the Federation of the International Football Association or FIFA, Brunei Darussalam’s ranking in term of its performance has dropped from 192 in 1999, to now 199th among 205 football clubs worldwide, while among teams of ASEAN member countries, Brunei is placed last.

The Minister of Culture, Youths and Sports, Retired Major General Pehin Dato Seri Pahlawan Haji Mohammad stated this at a meeting with DPMM FC players, Thursday. The Minister told the players that he has high hopes for the team to bring back the glory Brunei Darussalam once had, when it won the Malaysian League Cup in 1999 and at the same time regain local supporters in giving their full supports to the country’s team.

The Minister also urged all players to maintain their disciplines and the spirit of teamwork in order to preserve the quality of the sport and play it with discipline, whilst continuously making efforts to accept challenges with more commitment and strength and not violating any ethics such as by using drugs and smoking.

Also present at the meeting were the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Youths and Sports, Awang Haji Jemat bin Haji Ampal and BAFA Vice-President and other DPMM FC officials. DPPM FC is scheduled to meet Johor on home ground in the second round of the Malaysian League on the 5th of next month.

The Malay Technology Museum in Jalan Kota Batu is currently hosting a Boats exhibition with a theme “Menongkah Arus” or “Traversing the Blue”. The five-month long exhibition was launched Thursday by the Deputy Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, Dato Paduka Haji Yakub. According to archeological and historical sources, deep-sea maritime has existed from time immemorial. The maritime civilisation era has led to the spread of trades, centres of governance, religion, culture and social interaction and so forth. About thirty models of boat locally known as Rakit or Rafts, Bagong, Bedayung, Bidar, Pengabat, Kumpit and Pelauk are on display. Also on display are boats’ remains from the Limau Manis River archaeological site. The exhibition is open on Mondays to Fridays from nine in the morning to five in the afternoon.

The objective among other things is to reintroduce the various types of boat that had been in use and those which are rarely used today. The morning function also included the launching of the book, “Boats of Brunei Darussalam”. It contains flashback to the era of maritime in Brunei Darussalam and activities in the development of deep sea vessels.

The International Seminar on Jawi Writings agreed that all verses in the Al-Koran to be written in jawi and not in roman characters, for it could change the pronunciations of the words thus diminishing their true meanings. And as Malay Muslims, it is a must to learn the holy book and maintain the use of jawi writings. The resolution present to the Vice-Chancellor of Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Dato Paduka Doctor Haji Ismail at the closing of the seminar Thursday also underlined that the teachings and learnings of jawi must be given serious attention in the school curriculum, from pre-school to university levels. Participants of the seminar were also in consensus to publish more media materials written in jawi such as books, journals, magazines and the likes.

The Vice-Chancellor then presented certificates to all the participants including those who had tabled working papers at the seminar. In his speech at the closure of the seminar, Dato Doctor Haji Ismail said that current religious schools’ system of education that applies jawi writings should continue and enhance further or even supported by the secular system of education at government schools. The use of jawi should not only limited to religious school but also to non-religious schools.

Information and communications technology, or ICT, has enabled people to do many wonderful things, but it’s truly useful progress can only be made possible when there were people who were wise and sensible enough to prioritises the objectives of the technology. The Director of Department of ICT at the Ministry of Education, Awang Haji Abdul Ghani bin Haji Omar stated this at the conclusion of a three-day National Conference on ICT in Education, Thursday.

He said that in the field of education where technology is concerned, in any teaching and learning environment, technology is as good as the teachers who utilise it. He also outlined several benefits of the technology, especially to students, whereby they could have fun while using ICT in their exploration for knowledge and development. One such method was the use of digital games in education or edutainment as it is popularly known. Another benefit is in the arena of creativity where the use of ICT in music education or use of FLASH or PowerPoint in teaching and learning.