Bandar Seri Begawan - Sixteen Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) students yesterday returned after having spent a month teaching English and Malay to schoolchildren in Thailand's troubled south.
Under a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between UBD and the Prince of Songkla University (PSU) and the Yala Islamic University (YIU), the Bruneian volunteers were sent to Yala and Pattani, two Thai provinces where majority of its population are Muslims, from June 12 to July 9.
The students hailed from UBD's Faculty of Science, Faculty of Business, Economics and Policy Studies and the Academy of Brunei Studies, among others, and were given intensive training on teaching the English language by English and Communication lecturers at UBD prior to departing for Thailand.
Ten of the students were attached to PSU, while the remaining six were attached to YIU.
The Thai universities had selected 11 schools, which populations ranged from 300 students to almost 7,000, for the volunteers to teach at.
Two of them had the chance to teach at a "prestigious" demonstration school under PSU's Faculty of Education, while the rest taught at religious schools, known locally as sekolah pondok.
For the first week, they were accompanied by Dr Yabit Alas, the director of UBD's Language Centre. However, due to work commitments at the university, Yabit said that he had to return to Brunei, leaving the volunteers on their own.
"They became very independent through this project," he told The Brunei Times yesterday at the Brunei International Airport, while waiting to receive the returning students.
"In the south (of Thailand), Malay and English teachers are really needed. So we saw this as an opportunity for UBD to offer some help," Yabit said.
The community service activity was also a pilot project for UBD's Discovery Year, which will be initiated next year.
"UBD believes that to prepare a capable future generation, it is essential that their learning activities are not only confined to the classroom," a press release from university said.
"We need a generation who are not only academically good, but a generation who are very responsive to their environment. There are many ways we can do this, and one of it is by giving them chance to work directly in the society," the statement added.
Yabit said that both UBD and its Thai counterparts considered the project a success, and thus they were planning to expand the project next year.
"We taught English at first, but when we got to know the people there, we found out that it was very easy to converse with them in Malay," said one of the student volunteers.
Year Four Public Policy and Administration student Siti Salmiah Abd Rahman explained that life in the Thai south was far more hospitable and friendly than portrayed by international media.
The Associated Press on July 2 reported that "More than 4,000 people have been killed in Thailand's three southern-most provinces since an Islamist insurgency erupted in 2004".
"The southern insurgents have made no public pronouncements, but are thought to be fighting for an independent Muslim state. Their attacks target symbols of the state, including soldiers, government-run offices and businesses," the report said.
Thai Ambassador to Brunei Phitak Phrombubpha said that the students saw the "real life" of people in the southern part of Thailand and "not what they say in the news".
"They (the UBD students) are really the ambassadors and we are receiving them today as heroes," Phrombubpha said. -- Courtesy of The Brunei Times
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