KOTA KINABALU: A three-month ginger planting initiative at the St Michael’s secondary school in Penampang near here earned the school a place at the Malaysia Book of Records (MBR).
The record was given to the school for having the most ginger planted in a school with 4,857 plants grown.
Principal Jennifer Asing said the school started the project in September this year, and involved a total of 906 students, 66 teachers including herself, eight non-teaching staff as well as five cleaners and school gardeners.
“This idea resulted from a collective brainstorming session and decision from the principal, senior assistants, head of departments, planting committee and our school Lestari unit,” she added.
Penampang MP Datuk Ewon Benedick, who officiated at the record presentation ceremony on Saturday (Nov 30), said such initiatives were in line with the various government food sustainability programmes.
He said this is the 12th record set by the school, and hopes such initiatives would also inspire others to come up with creative educational programmes for the development of education in Sabah.
He said among the objectives of this ginger planting programme was to instil environmental awareness among students and local communities through 3R activities - reduce, reuse and recycle.
“I was informed that this is also to promote entrepreneurship interest among students, instil interest in planting, and to allow students to express their creativity in recycling for the purpose of environment conservation,” said Ewon.
He said any educational and purposeful activities will be well supported by the government through its various related agencies. For example, in his ministry - Entrepreneurship and Cooperatives Development, there is a scheme designed for cooperatives funding.
He said for initiatives such as that taken by this school, they have a working capital financing service for food sustainability programmes.
Ewon said financial institutions such as Bank Rakyat also offer funding schemes that cater to such initiatives.
Also present during the event were Penampang district council president Francis Chong, representative from MBR Siti Nurhanim Mohd Noh, representatives from the Environment Department, Yayasan Bank Rakyat, Sawit Kinabalu and other strategic partners.
