THE High Performance Rural Schools (HIPERS) programme, which was initiated by Sarawak Foundation in 1996, provides rural schools with a platform to improve their academic performance and be on par with secondary schools in the urban areas of Sarawak.
Last year, 4,631 HIPERS students from 25 rural secondary schools sat for their Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examinations.
According to the Sarawak Foundation (Yayasan Sarawak), fourteen schools improved their performance by 4 per cent in SPM 2022, while just one school maintained its performance from the previous year.
“This shows that our efforts through this initiative have had a significant impact on the school’s success, and we will remain proactive in providing educational opportunities for our rural students,” said Sarawak Foundation director Mersal Abang Rosli.
“We’ve also developed a roadmap for students, offering them the choice of continuing their education in academic or technical courses at our foundation’s own institutions, and we’re committed to funding them through our sponsorship in the form of a loan or scholarship,” he added.
According to the foundation, 146 HIPERS teachers from 51 schools attended a workshop in late 2021 to improve the programme’s efficiency and maximise its positive impact on students.
The foundation has budgeted RM2.3 million to implement the new strategy in 2022, with RM42,600 allocated to 26 primary school and RM49,000 allocated to 25 secondary schools.
“Almost 68 per cent, or RM629,000, of the funding for HIPERS programmes in secondary schools was spent on academic activities such as tuition classes, drilling programmes, workshops on answering questions, exposing students to effective study techniques, and books and materials organised by the schools throughout year 2022,” the foundation said.
It added that the remainder of the funds were used to organise events such as motivational talks, student camps, benchmark trips to excellent schools, and parenting activities, as well as to cover administrative costs.
Sarawak Foundation wishes to congratulate all HIPERS students on their hard work, devotion, and ability to obtain good results in the SPM 2022.
“We are pleased with the outcome of our efforts, with 28 students or 0.6 per cent of the overall population who took the exam, getting straight As in the SPM examination in 2022,” said Mersal.
