Enhancing schoolchildren's English, BM and IT skills

From left: Prof Leung and Prof Choong with the participants

The successful fifth ECM Libra-UTAR Tuition and IT Skills Programme 2018 officially ended with a closing ceremony on 11 November 2018 at Kampar Campus. Present at the ceremony were UTAR Vice President for Student Development and Alumni Relations Prof Dr Choong Chee Keong, ECM Libra Foundation Board of Trustee Lim Beng Choon, Faculty of Information and Communication Technology (FICT) Deputy Dean Prof Dr Leung Kar Hang, Department of Soft Skills Competency (DSSC) Kampar Head Hee Chwen Yee, Principals from SJK (C) Yit Chee Choong Yien Keong, SJKC Sin Min Chin Shan Shan, SJKC Jeram Choong Hoo Fung, Penolong Kanan Pentadbiran of SJKC (C) Lawan Kuda Lee Siew Mee, representatives, parents and schoolchildren.

Jointly organised by DSSC, FICT and Faculty of Arts and Social Science, the tuition programme aimed at enhancing schoolchildren’s English, Bahasa Malaysia (BM) and Information Technology (IT) skills. The tuition programme was also designed to help schoolchildren feel more confident and to prepare them for their future job seeking. Participating primary schools were SJK(C) Thung Hon, Chederong;SJK(C) Jeram; SJK(C) Lawan Kuda; SJK(C) Bemban; SJK(C) Sin Min, Tronoh Mines and SJK (C) Yit Chee, Pusing.

Prof Choong highlighting the importance of mastering English and BM languages and IT skills

“When the first tuition programme was conducted in 2014, we only had 61 primary students participating. Today, we recorded to have over 600 primary school students who are not only participating but are also benefitting from this tuition programme. The focus is to help primary school students in the New Villages to have the opportunity to engage in better learning opportunities as well as to help them improve their English and BM languages,” said Prof Choong in his closing speech.

He added, “Enabling them to improve their proficiency in languages will also allow them to secure employment easily. While they study hard to improve their language proficiency, the IT programme provides the schoolchildren with opportunities to explore the usage and functions of a computer and how to make good use of the computer.”

Yien Kong explaining the need for schoolchildren to make good use of computer skills

Headmaster Yien Kong from SJK (C) Yit Chee, in his speech, also mentioned the important application of computer in the modern world. “Computer is no longer a strange thing to our children, because apart from using the computer to surf the internet, computers are also used to play games. However, the tuition programme offers our school students the chance to learn something broader about the computer, and hopefully to put their computing interest to good use. Perhaps they may even use their computing skills to create creative and innovative computer programmes in the future. Therefore, we are very thankful to UTAR and ECM Libra Foundation for this tuition programme,” enthused Yien Kong.

The tuition programme was conducted from January to November this year in various schools, with English and BM tuitions focused on improving schoolchildren’s listening, speaking, reading, guided writing and grammar. Meanwhile, the IT skill programme taught the schoolchildren SCRATCH programming language; it enabled the schoolchildren to use that programming language to create own interactive stories, games and animations.

The closing ceremony also saw some performance by the schoolchildren. Students from SJK (C) Jeram recited an English poem titled “Our Daily Pledge” and a BM poem titled “Terima Kasih Cikgu”, and performed a dance. Students from SJK (C) Thung Hon also performed a self-choreographed dance. Other performances also included storytelling by students of SJKC Sin Min, and singing by students of SJKC Lawan Kuda. IT projects done by the students were also showcased at the ceremony. Best performing students in the English, BM and IT Tuition Programme were also awarded.

Yien Kong (left) giving a token of appreciation to Lim (centre), while Prof Choong looks on

Dancing, singing, poem reciting and story-telling performances by the schoolchildren