Eok Kwan Enrichment Camp

Group photo of SJK(C) Eok Kwan participants and the facilitators

A one-day camp titled “Eok Kwan Enrichment Camp” for students and teachers of SJK(C) Eok Kwan, Pengkalan Hulu was held at the Faculty of Arts and Social Science (FAS), UTAR Kampar Campus on 20 June 2015.

Organised by FAS, the camp was attended by 10 teachers and 34 students and is part of FAS’s community engagement initiatives.

Present to welcome them were FAS Dean Dr Alia Azalea, Head of Department of Languages and Linguistics (DLL) Christina Ong Sook Beng, and Department of Psychology and Counselling lecturer Andrew Au Soon Kay.

“I’m glad to have all of you here at UTAR Perak Campus today for this one-day enrichment camp. I hope all of you will enjoy the rest of the day and learn something new,” said Dr Alia, who also expressed her appreciation to the SJK(C) Eok Kwan folks for travelling all the way from northern Perak to UTAR Perak Campus.

Heartened by FAS’s warm reception, SJK(C) Eok Kwan Headmaster Hoo Yu Pee enthused, “We’re truly grateful for the arrangements made by UTAR FAS. We hope that the teachers and students will learn something new at the end of camp.” Hoo also introduced SJK(C) Eok Kwan as a multi-racial Chinese primary school with a sizeable student population of Malay, Indian, Orang Asli and Thai descent.

The camp also involved several English Language undergraduates to facilitate the primary school students in language games such as “Word Family Game”, “Rhyming”, “Making Mental Images” and “Treasure Hunt” to spark the latter’s interests in learning English.

The primary school students having a whale of time through language games and treasure hunt

The teachers, on the other hand, were taught Strategic Reading methods by DLL Senior Lecturer Renu a/l Kailsan, followed by a talk titled “Parenting Today’s Generation” by Department of Psychology and Counselling lecturers Annie Margaret a/p Sandela Raran. Au also coached the teachers via a workshop on team building.

(Clockwise from top left) Renu, Annie and Au conducting the workshops for teachers

The teachers learning about team building through games

“The enrichment camp is a great platform for us, the teachers, to learn from dedicated lecturers, and for the students to have fun learning outside the classroom. The stimulating talks have also allowed us to rethink and redefine our very special roles as educators,” remarked Hoo at the end of the camp.

“The camp was fun despite being just a day. Besides learning that English is an interesting and useful language, I also learnt about the importance of teamwork through games such as Treasure Hunt,” shared Standard 6 student Suphaphorn a/p Su Thip.

Dr Alia (left) presenting certificates of attendance to Hoo