As part of the community, UTAR endeavours to look beyond educating students to imbue a sense of social and ethical responsibility into its campus culture. Therefore, to bring quality education to the less fortunate, UTAR once again collaborated with ECM Libra Foundation to organise a series of comprehensive English and IT Tuition Programmes for selected primary schools in Kampar and Batu Gajah, namely SJK(C) Jeram, SJK (C) Kampung Timah, SJK (C) Lawan Kuda, SJK (C) Bemban and SJK (C) Thung Hon.
Prof Choong (second from right) presenting a token of appreciation to Cheah while Krishnan (far left) and Sun look on
Jointly conducted since March 2016 by UTAR Department of Soft Skills Competency (DSSC), Faculty of Arts and Social Science (FAS) and Faculty of Information and Communication Technology (FICT), the tuition programmes ended with a closing ceremony at UTAR Kampar Campus on 19 November 2016.
The five schools were identified from the UTAR New Village Community Project. The programme was aimed to enhance the school students’ English Language and IT proficiency as well as to strengthen their understanding toward the subjects. In addition to that, the programme was also used as a platform to coach the school students prior to UPSR and their school final term examinations.
Invited to grace the closing ceremony were Senior Manager of ECM Libra Foundation Cheah Sook Lian, UTAR Vice President for Student Development and Alumni Relations Prof Dr Choong Chee Keong, Deputy Dean of FAS Krishnan Vengidasamy representing Dean of FAS Dr Alia Azalea, Lecturer of FICT Sun Teik Heng representing Dean of FICT Assoc Prof Dr Liew Soung Yue, Head of the Department of Languages and Linguistics from FAS Christina Ong Sook Beng, the Head of DSSC Hee Chwen Yee, representatives of schools, UTAR student volunteers and staff, school students, and parents.
Prof Choong thanking ECM Libra for its generous contribution
Speaking at the ceremony, Prof Choong said, “On behalf of UTAR, I would like to thank ECM Libra for its generous contribution towards promoting education and the mastery of languages amongst the young. This year marks the third year of our collaboration with ECM Libra Foundation since 2014. UTAR and ECM Libra Foundation have enjoyed a friendly relationship as we both share the passion in giving back to society. We are glad to see that more than 140 schoolchildren have benefitted from the tuition programmes conducted by UTAR staff and assisted by UTAR students.”
He added, “This is a good opportunity for the schools and young students from new villages to learn and equip themselves with the right education and essential knowledge, especially with English being the lingua franca around the world, and with IT skills becoming increasingly essential in the 21st century. UTAR as a not-for-profit university, established for the people and by the people, strives to provide educational opportunities for deserving students in the country. Education can transform the lives of youths and broaden their horizons to build a brighter and better tomorrow.”
Addressing the organisers and student volunteers, Prof Choong said, “I would like to thank DSSC, FAS, FICT and all the UTAR student volunteers for conducting these beneficial programmes which offer an intensive learning opportunity to the primary school students. I hope you will continue to give your strong support towards volunteerism and make a positive difference in the lives of those less fortunate.”
Nicole Hwang Wei Min, a Year Two English Education student volunteer said,“One of the reasons why I joined this programme was to gain more experience in the art of teaching. As we all know, teaching doesn't come naturally, nor is it simply ‘talent’. Teaching well comes from practice, from learning through trial and error. This programme allowed me to do just that. I've faced many hardships during this project: students not complying with your instructions, improper lesson planning and even time was sometimes against us. Actual teaching breaks the stereotype that teaching is a walk-in-the-park job and sometimes, reality doesn’t live up to our expectations. But to balance it all out, the feeling of achievement that I got when a troublesome student finally understood a difficult concept is inexpressible. The chorus of ‘thank you, teacher!’, their smiles and their laughter were just rewards for me.”
She added, “This project benefitted us in a way that helps us understand our course structure clearly. In my humble opinion, this project helped us more in terms of life lessons. Lessons such as patience, compromise and passion cannot be simply taught in a formal classroom. They have to be experienced first-hand, through the hard way if necessary. So, I believe that this project benefitted us students in a way that allowed us to discover ourselves, rather than choosing to undergo this project for academic purposes.”
Another Year Two volunteer, Computer Science student Lai Wing Khang said, “It was indeed an eye-opening experience where I was able to teach the school students and at the same time equip myself with some useful knowledge and principles such as patience, determination, perseverance and tenacity which cannot be learned from theoretical classes. Apart from that, I was also very excited to see the school students develop their interest in basic IT by enhancing their curiosity through various hands-on activities.”
The English Tuition programme focused primarily on the teaching of listening, speaking, reading and writing skills to the school students. Apart from indoor learning, the students also engaged in interactive activities such as storytelling, grammar lessons, English language-related games, reading aloud, and singing action songs to stimulate students’ interest in English.
Meanwhile, the components of the IT Tuition programme involved indoor class training on some basic programming and animation skills. Both English and IT classes were conceptualised as an educational yet enjoyable platform to encourage students to be dynamic, creative and innovative. Guided by the instructors and UTAR student volunteers from various faculties, the school students had a whale of a time with exciting language and IT classes.
School students performing at the closing ceremony
The closing ceremony ended with Cheah presenting prizes to school students who had performed well in the final assessment as well as those who had shown great improvement in the programme.
Joyful prize recipients posing for a group photo
School students with their instructors
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