Commissioner Boyd McCleary, how they had improved their command of English.
IT WAS to be class as usual for the pupils of SJK(T) Ladang Bradwall near Port Dickson, Negri Sembilan, but their day was spiced up recently by the presence of a surprise visitor.

Excitedly, the pupils showed the guest, British High Commissioner McCleary, accompanied by HSBC Bank Malaysia Berhad's new chief executive officer, Irene Dorner, and officials, visited the estate school to observe the implementation of the Project to Improve English in Rural Schools (PIERS).

After they were briefed on the structure, implementation and results of the PIERS programme by manager and senior trainer Mark Baldwin, McCleary and Dorner had a first-hand experience of the programme when they sat in two science classes.

The class was enlightening as the visitors got to see the teachers applying the techniques they have learnt under PIERS such as group-work and interactive language-learning activities in their classroom.

McCleary opined that implementing a number of these projects throughout the country over the next few years could have a significant impact in helping to narrow the rural-urban gap in education, an important target of the National Education Blueprint 2006-2010.

PIERS, which is fully designed and managed by CfBT Education Malaysia, a part of the CfBT Education Trust group, is an initiative to raise the standard of English for teachers and children in rural areas.

The project is aimed at English language teachers as well as Mathematics and Science teachers, focusing on classroom delivery, the use of Information and Communication Technology and leadership in schools as a whole.

HSBC Bank Malaysia is the sponsor for this particular PIERS programme, which is centred on a cluster of 17 rural primary schools in the Port Dickson district and has pledged a sponsorship of RM1mil over four years.