After a very very tiring 14 hour bus ride from Kuching to Bintulu… enduring the long terrible Trans-Borneo Highway, we came back to Kuching with nothing to show off. Literally.
- Students sleeping when travelling by bus to Bintulu and back from Kuching
I would be still happy to claim that my team was last in the Sarawak Robotics Finals, but that wasn’t the case.
Despite the effort, time and money spent… the result was.. NO RESULT! All that was said that “All secondary schools teams participating in the open category will not represent Sarawak in the National Finals in Kuala Lumpur“. I’d be honest by saying I am not happy when there’s no result, particular in this Robotics competition. Last year, the same thing happened, and I was chidded off by some officers from KL for not knowing where my team stood in the competition. I know my boss would also not be happy knowing there’s no standing for our team. Therefore, even last place would still be a result for me.
- Primary school students participated too.
As a matter of fact, I thought that in a competition, you’d always expect a winner and a looser, but in this competition, there’s none. Yes, representing Sarawak and out doing our west Malaysian conterparts in the competition would be good, but shouldn’t there be a winner even for the local Sarawak competition? Whether they have the quality or not to represent Sarawak in nationals would be a whole different story, but the students must be given their due appreciation, by knowing where they stand so that they can improve.
- Presentation to the judges
I’m not sure who made such a decision, but I pity the students. The sacrificed so much, and yet they didn’t even get last place (last place would still look good on the certificate as it would be 7th spot out of Sarawak’s 11 Division). Also, a position any state level competition automatically gives students a huge boost in their extra curricular activity marks, and hence providing them with better chances into local universities. No position means that they only get the minimum marks because they only get ‘participation marks’
- Posing proudly infront of their creation
Not sure what’s gonna happen next year, but I may suggest that ‘we’ don’t join next year. For me, it’s not about the result, it’s about appreciating what the students have done to complete such a tiring and time consuming project. No result somehow makes a statement that their effort is unappreciated. hmmm….
- The regular category in progress
For me, I’d have to think of how I’m going to answer someone when they ask about where my team was placed after spending so much money to represent the division in Bintulu… =(
Any ideas?
