Message From The Minister of Education

It is a great pleasure to see the National Robotics Competition (NRC) being held for the fifth consecutive year. The NRC has successfully raised interest in Science and Technology, and robotics among our students. The response from schools last year was overwhelming. We hope for the same thing this year as this will help towards achieving our goal – preparing students to be of international quality to face global challenges.

A student's performance outside of the classroom is as important as his or her performance within it. It is the ministry's aim to produce what we call " all-rounder" students who excel in scholastic and non-scholastic areas. Our students should possess good values and morals, and be disciplined and resilient, in addition to having outstanding academic records.

The National Education Blueprint 2006-2010 will enter its fourth year of implementation this year. One of the areas it will focus on is the creation of human capital suitable for the future workforce. In other words, we wish to produce students who are competent in Science and Technology, and are innovative and creative as well as marketable. To this end, students are encouraged to take part in creativity development activities such as the NRC.  

Through participation in the NRC, students will be introduced to areas of Science and Technology in a hands-on, experimental way. They will explore problems and discover their own solutions. The problems and challenges the students will face in the competition will encourage them to use their imagination, try out their problem-solving skills and cooperate with others.

Therefore, in addition to giving students an exciting introduction to robotics, the
NRC helps them to acquire and hone skills such as critical and creative thinking
skills, teamwork, interpersonal communication and problem-solving. These are
skills that are required, and indeed highly valued, in today's world.

The feedback we have received regarding this programme has been very positive. Participation in the NRC has increased every year and last year we saw a total of 3100 teams from schools all over the country taking part in the programme. Our students' achievements in the WRO 2008, held in Yokohama, Japan, are certainly something to be proud of. The Malaysian contingent won one gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze medals. One of our primary school teams also won "The Most Popular Team" award.

I would like to urge students and teachers to make full use of the opportunity that this competition gives them, to acquire knowledge and master skills in the field of Mathematics, Science and Technology which will stand them in good stead in the future.

DATO' SERI HISHAMMUDDIN TUN HUSSEIN

Minister of Education

Ministry of Education, Malaysia