JOHOR BAHRU, Saturday, April 3rd 2010 - UEM Land Holdings Berhad, the master developer of Nusajaya and key driver of Iskandar Malaysia, today celebrated the achievements of 45 students who achieved excellence in their 2009 UPSR and PMR examinations.

The students from UEM Land’s 16 “adopted” schools under the PINTAR Programme, were presented with cash and certificates by UEM Land Holdings Berhad Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Wan Abdullah Wan Ibrahim in a prize-giving ceremony in Dewan Raya Gelang Patah, Johor Bahru, graced by Nusajaya State Assemblyman, Datuk Abdul Aziz Sapian.

In its second year, the ceremony was organised to recognize the students’ hard work and determination in delivering their personal best. This is also an effort to encourage the culture of excellence among PINTAR schools students, teachers as well as parents, to become more committed, and performance oriented in realizing their goals to achieve excellent results.

The overall results of UEM Land’s PINTAR schools’ students indicated an improvement for the year 2009. For PMR results, 13 students obtained 8As as compared to only nine students last year while for UPSR results, the schools collectively recorded a 0.65 % increase compared to 2008, with 29 students achieving 5A’s and 6A’s. For the SPM results, three students from SMK Gelang Patah obtained 10As and above last year. The UPSR, PMR and SPM students were respectively awarded with cash while the best overall student for PMR and SPM additionally received a computer laptop each.

“It is an honour to celebrate these high achievers as their determination and commitment towards achieving success can be emulated by other students. As a caring developer, we are eager to intensify our efforts and to continuously review and improve our PINTAR programmes to achieve our objective in helping the community grow in sync with the developments in Nusajaya” Wan Abdullah said.

“We are truly grateful to all parties, particularly the Johor Bahru District Education Department (PPDJB), Johor State Educational Department (JPNJ), the teachers and parents for the support and commitment in ensuring our effort in implementing the PINTAR programme a success,” he added.

UEM Land is committed to its principle of ‘responsible corporate citizenship’ and its CSR thrust is on education and community development. Education has been identified as a key enabler that will contribute towards bridging the socio economic and digital divide between the urban and rural communities.

Cognizant of this and in view of the current status of the local communities, UEM Land had committed to Corporate Social Responsibility on education for the Nusajaya communities since 2007. This commitment was further strengthened when UEM Land “adopted” the 12 primary and 4 secondary schools under the PINTAR Programme in 2008. For the programme, UEM Land has been providing ICT training and a series of educational clinics and workshops to prepare students for the UPSR, PMR and SPM examinations.

The ceremony was also attended by parents of the awardees, school heads and teachers, representatives of Johor Bahru District Education Department as well as UEM Land representatives.