In line with the mission to provide quality education as well as reduce inequality under the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, UTAR Faculty of Engineering and Green Technology (FEGT) in collaboration with Persatuan Kebajikan dan Kemajuan Masyarakat Tamiliar in Kampar conducted a series of motivational workshops for Tamil school students.

The first session of the programme saw 42 school students and 60 parents from four schools in Kampar, namely SRJK (T) Kampar, SRJK (T) Mambang Di Awan, SRJK (T) Ladang Kampar and SRJK (T) Malim Nawar. The ceremony took place on 13 May 2023 at UTAR Kampar Campus.

Titled, “Learning ethics and self-effication”, the workshop aimed to instil good learning ethics among Tamil school students, improve their self-confidence in oral communication using the Malay language and motivate them to pursue a successful educational journey up to tertiary education.

The programme kick-started with a speech by UTAR FEGT Dean Ir Prof Dr Ng Choon Aun. In his speech, Prof Ng expressed his appreciation to Persatuan Kebajikan dan Kemajuan Masyarakat Tamilar Kampar for choosing UTAR as its collaborative partner to organise this event for the Tamil schoolchildren.

In his speech, he emphasised “As an academic institution, UTAR is committed to contributing to the development of the local society as part of its corporate social responsibilities. I hope this programme will benefit the school children and increase their self-confidence and motivate them to excel in their studies to secure a better life.”

Echoing the sentiment of Prof Ng, FEGT academic Prof Dr S. Sumathi, also one of the motivational speakers of the programme, shared her educational journey up to completing her PhD with the students and parents. She emphasised the importance of education to improve the livelihood of the Indian community in Malaysia. She also shared her studying techniques with the schoolchildren.

Meanwhile, the Secretary of Persatuan Kebajikan dan Kemajuan Masyarakat Tamiliar, R. William expressed his happiness in organising the event successfully. He highlighted the problems faced by the Indian students in secondary schools, who graduated from Tamil primary schools. He said, “They have good written command of the Malay language but lack self-confidence when it comes to speaking in Malay. This then leads to social distancing or self-isolation when they enrol into secondary school. Thus, to overcome this problem we have taken the initiative to collaborate with UTAR to organise this programme.”  

The programme will be carried out weekly in Tamil school with one hour of Malay Language class by school teachers followed by motivational and experience-sharing sessions by UTAR academic staff and successful alumni.

Apart from the motivational talk by Prof Sumathi, the programme also included a lab tour to FEGT and an experimental demonstration as part of STEM activities. Among the experiments conducted were the robotic arm demo, wastewater microbial detection demo using the microscope method, pH measurement demo and building model demo. Through the engagements, students were able to increase their interest in STEM. The programme also encouraged them to pursue their studies at higher learning institutions.

The programme will continue until October 2023.