The Star Online: Metro: South & East
The Star Online: Metro: South & East |
- Promote all ethnic art
- Less tour bookings in March due to the coming general election
- Focus is the main reason, say top STPM achievers
| Posted: 31 Mar 2013 06:05 PM PDT TANGKAK: The state wants to promote local art and culture adopted and practiced by the Malays, Chinese, Indians and other ethnic races here. Mentri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman said this is to ensure that people in the state would enjoy prosperity and economic growth with a rich culturalheritage. Abdul Ghani added that Johor is blessed with the arts and culture from the different races. "We should develop Johor's art and culture and promote them at every level of society in state. "Many of the traditional Malay culture, especially zapin and ghazal music, originated here and was developed by Johoreans in the early days. "We have identified about 15 different zapin dances and they all came from the districts in Johor," he said at a gathering in Kampung Kesang Tasek near here recently. Abdul Ghani, who was accompanied by the National Arts and Culture Department deputy director-general Mesran Mohd Yusof, said the state would help promote arts and culture in Johor. He added that villagers are encouraged to set up or form their own cultural groups and the state would provide with the necessary assistance. Earlier, Abdul Ghani joined the villagers in a gotong-royong session cleaning up a multi-purpose hall before joining the villagers in preparing a beef curry dish called lauk kawah. |
| Less tour bookings in March due to the coming general election Posted: 31 Mar 2013 06:05 PM PDT JOHOR BARU: Travel and tour agencies here have reported a decline in bookings for overseas tour packages during the week-long March school holidays compared to last year. The agencies believe that this could be due to many Malaysians preferring to stay in the country in anticipation of the general election. J&C Travel Sdn Bhd managing director Jackson Kong said that since early this year, it had yet to receive any bookings for tour packages during the March school break, which is from March 23 to March 31. "Last year, we received bookings of up to 20 groups for overseas travel during this period. But this time around, many do not want to miss the elections and decided to have their holidays later," he said. His clients, added Kong, would normally book their tour packages three months in advance. K.H. Travel (M) Sdn Bhd managing director John S.K. Tok said Malaysians usually preferred to spend the March school break in regional destinations like China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand and Bali. "We had 200 bookings for the March school holiday last year when my clients were still unsure when Parliament would be dissolved," he said, adding that he did not think there would be any new bookings now that the elections were closer. Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Matta) Johor chapter deputy chairman Steven Chong said he expected bookings to increase for the longer June school holidays. "We are hoping the elections will be over before June as during the longer school holidays, people would want to travel to Europe and the United States," he said. For the Johor Matta fair to be held soon, he said travel agencies were expecting Malaysians to place bookings for tours in June instead of March. |
| Focus is the main reason, say top STPM achievers Posted: 31 Mar 2013 06:06 PM PDT JOHOR BARU: Two top achievers in the Sijil Pelajaran Tinggi Malaysia (STPM) examination from Sultan Ibrahim Girls School shared a common secret to success. Science stream student Loh Sok Cheng and Arts stream student Nurul Huda Mohd Farith said undivided attention in class was the main factor which made them succeed in their studies. They also attributed their success to the support received from members of their family and friends as well valuable guidance from teachers throughout their years in the school. Loh and Nurul, both 20, singled out concentration during lessons was the key to successfully grasping each topic of every subject. "I personally believe, when a student fully focused into what the teacher is lecturing about in front of the class, the message of the topic can be understood,'' she said. Apart from emerging as a top student in her school, Loh also made her alma mater proud by becoming one of the top 20 achievers in the STPM examination in Johor. She obtained a perfect cumulative grade point average of 4.0 in the Chemical, Biology, Physic and General Paper subjects in the last year's STPM. Loh hoped to pursue her studies in chemical engineering or pharmacy at Universiti Malaya or National University of Singapore, as chemistry was her favourite subject. Nurul on the other hand opined students to put aside all matters which could distract their concentration and calm themselves during lessons. "More often that not, students are easily distracted with other things in their minds and even worse, some of them are not making efforts to understand the subjects,'' she added. Nurul planned to continue her studies either in public university in the country or better still she could enroll in the faculty of education in a university overseas. She attributed her love to economics to her mother who is an economic teacher and she might follow her mother's footstep or become an economist like Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz. SIGS was ranked as one of the top schools in Johor and emerged as the top school in the Johor Baru district in the last year's STPM. In a press conference, Johor Education Department director Mohd Nor A. Ghani said a total of 5,127 out of 5,311 candidates in the state who sat for their STPM in 2012, passed with at least one principle. He said the numbers of schools statewide which recorded a 100% passing rate had increased from 31 in 2011 to 45 schools last year. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from The Star Online: Metro: South & East To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 ulasan:
Catat Ulasan