• 1,272 participants nationwide including 528 students and 176 teachers from Sarawak
• 19 rural areas reached, involving 300 students and 100 teachers
• Event spanned four months, culminating in a closing ceremony on 5 July 2025

KUCHING, 5 JULY 2025 – Over 1,270 students and teachers from across Malaysia participated in the BugCrusher Junior Coding Hackathon 2025, a nationwide STEM competition that concluded today at Makeramai Makerspace, Plaza Merdeka, Kuching.

BugCrusher is a homegrown initiative launched by Sarawak Digital Economy Corporation (SDEC) and its partner Realfun Learning Centre in 2020. Now in its sixth year, it continues to grow as one of Malaysia’s most exciting STEM supplementary programmes.

This year’s event featured a four-stage format that ran from March to July 2025, combining physical hackathons, online challenges, and teacher-led workshops. It comprised the Junior Category (ages 10 to 12) using Scratch, and Senior Category (ages 13 to 15) using HTML/CSS or Advanced Scratch.

The 2025 edition of BugCrusher recorded a total of 1,272 participants, comprising 954 students and 318 teachers. Of this number, 528 students and 176 teachers represent Sarawak, while 426 students and 142 teachers come from other states in Malaysia. The programme also reached 19 rural areas across Sarawak, involving 300 students and 100 teachers.

Among the finalists in the Junior Category were students from Sarawak, Sabah, Penang and Selangor, while the Senior Category featured finalists from Sarawak and Penang, highlighting the growing diversity and digital readiness of schools across the nation.

At the closing ceremony earlier this afternoon, Chief Executive Officer of SDEC Dato Ir. Ts. Sudarnoto Osman said in his closing remarks that BugCrusher is much more than just a coding competition. It is about cultivating problem-solving and critical thinking skills, and ultimately, discovering brilliance in the process.  

“Here, we witness the spark of innovation as young minds embrace logic and tackle complexity. And what makes BugCrusher more special is the bond between students and teachers as partners in discovery – working side-by-side through every sprint and submission.

I hope that our STEM supplementary programmes such as Bugcrusher don’t just teach our students about science and technology but will spark something deeper in them. And above all, the belief that they, too, can be the inventors, innovators, and problem-solvers of tomorrow,” Sudarnoto commented.

Bugcrusher is also supported by MEITD, Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia, and TEGAS Community Innovative Learning (TCIL). For more information about Bugcrusher, visit bugcrusher.net.