Education Ministry's deputy director (Policy and Planning) Rosland Hussein said Unicef had already implemented Supplementary Reading Programmes (SRP) while the British Council had introduced the 'Dreams and Teams' programme in a number schools in Sabah.

SRP is a programme to encourage and promote usage of English in rural schools while the Dreams and Teams is a programme aimed at introducing leadership through sports, with the College of Sabah becoming the first to adopt the programme in 2003.

'Through the initiatives, sports and the English language will become a foundation to churn out excellent students. The programmes will be introduced to other schools that are interested,' he told reporters after leading the delegation to visit SMK Datuk Peter Mojuntin here today.

Though SMK Datuk Peter Mojuntin is recognised as the only sports school in the state, it lacks qualified trainers in sports, hostel facilities but a stadium with eight synthetic tracks would be ready by January next year.

'We hope that the visiting delegation would be able to have a first hand view of what was available in such schools before deciding on what kind of assistance to be provided,' he said.

Meanwhile, SMK Datuk Peter Mojuntin school head Nurani Fauziah Derin said about 105 athletes train in the school. -- Bernama