By Aida Mokhtar
Recently, we saw the official ending to a beneficial Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) tuition programme organised by the Disability Services Unit (DSU), Deputy Rector (Student Development and Community Engagement), IIUM, under the OKU4U Flagship project for the Orang Asli and Asnaf children, at the IIUM Gombak campus.
The first ever tuition programme had been going on for the last two months and was organised by DSU. It was divided into two parts. One part was conducted twice a week guided by expert teachers from schools in Kuala Lumpur and was focused on preparing the children for subjects such as Maths, History, Bahasa Malaysia, and English. Another part of the tuition session saw classes conducted every day guided by mentors comprising student volunteers under the Akar Budi Centre ˜Bimbing programme mentioned by the Advisor to DSU, Madam Martinelli Hashim.
Prior to the official closing ceremony, there was a session managed by another Advisor of DSU, Dato Yusri Anwar, who asked the children to answer a sample SPM History paper within a given time. The next session saw advice given by a teacher on how to answer the SPM Maths paper. The importance of getting support from parents and teachers through their guidance and du’a, putting in the effort and staying calm were some of the advice given by the speakers during the pre-closing session.
The official closing ceremony proceeded with a speech by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zulkifli Hasan, the Deputy Rector of the Office of Student Development and Community Engagement who thanked DSU for organising the tuition programme. He referred to a book entitled, Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire and how it emphasised on the importance of education in changing people who could then change the world, making knowledge important to seek by us as emphasised in the tuition programme.
Head of DSU, Prof. Dr. Ruzita, ended the closing ceremony by conveying her gratitude to everyone involved for their efforts and hoped to see another similar programme for the upcoming SPM exam.***
(Assoc. Prof. Dr. Aida Mokhtar is an academic in the Department of Communication, AHAS KIRKHS)