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Malaysia’s rural students get STEM education

Image Credits: UTM, Press Release

According to a recent press release, the “Adopt a Kampung” is a program organised by Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). In particular, the Razak team which works to facilitate learning for students from various schools in Malaysia.

The team, which was fully funded by its industry partner, has successfully established its 5th STREAM Fun Learning Toy Library in Johor. The school chosen was SMK LKTP Ayer Hitam, Kluang.

In September 2018, students from Year 5 and 6 were given the privilege of having a toy library in each of their classrooms. The team conducted their initial school visit in March 2018 for a feasibility study. The effectiveness of the STREAM Fun Learning Toy Library program and its impact on the Felda Ayer Hitam community were closely monitored.

On 12 March 2019, the “Adopt a Kampung” team, headed by the Research Chair, visited the school to monitor and collect data to study the outcome of the project. This trip was part of the efforts taken by the team to ensure that the team’s community work and its industry partner investment yield positive outcomes to the targeted community.

Similar projects carried out previously in Kelantan schools had so far revealed that the toy library projects have had a high impact on the community of the rural and remote areas. The team’s effort was highly recognized, their projects receiving a 5-star rating for two consecutive years, besides securing a silver medal in the NALI 2018 poster competition.

Being the first of its kind, STREAM Fun Learning Toy Library has unique features that have also attracted the attention of several NGOs, private companies including The Institution of Engineers Malaysia, Academy Sains Malaysia, the former Education Minister, and Kelantan and Johor Education Departments. More recently, the National Library of Malaysia has also expressed interest.

The teamwork is also relevant when their effort addresses the STEM education global issues as it inculcates STEM interest in children at a very young age.

Positive feedback from the teachers, parents, students of the pre-school classes who are currently in Primary 1 in the year 2019 is very encouraging.

As this is an ongoing project, the team will continue to collect and analyse all related data for publication purposes in the future.

In addition, a comparative study on the STREAM Fun Learning Toy Library will also be conducted between the schools in Kelantan and Johor.

In the previous year, 2018, a paper-based seminar on this program was presented at an international conference for Women in Science and Technology (WiSET 2018) at KL Convention Centre. The article has been published in IOP Journal this year.

Need for STEM education in Malaysia

Malaysia’s Education Blueprint highlights the importance and necessity of STEM education. The Malaysian Government aims to prepare students with the skills they need to meet the science and technology challenges and to ensure that Malaysia has a sufficient number of qualified STEM graduates.

Under the STEM initiative, the Government is working to raise student interests through new learning approaches and an enhanced curriculum, sharpen skills and abilities of teachers as well as build public and student awareness.

The New Primary and Secondary Curricula prioritises the need to develop in students higher order thinking skills, project-based learning, ICT games-based learning and minimising content overlap with other subjects & postsecondary.

Thus, it is clear that the Government and members of academic institutions are working to help develop the IT talent needed in Malaysia for it to keep pace with the world and meet Industry 4.0 workforce needs.

PARTNER

Qlik’s vision is a data-literate world, where everyone can use data and analytics to improve decision-making and solve their most challenging problems. A private company, Qlik offers real-time data integration and analytics solutions, powered by Qlik Cloud, to close the gaps between data, insights and action. By transforming data into Active Intelligence, businesses can drive better decisions, improve revenue and profitability, and optimize customer relationships. Qlik serves more than 38,000 active customers in over 100 countries.

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CTC Global Singapore, a premier end-to-end IT solutions provider, is a fully owned subsidiary of ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation (CTC) and ITOCHU Corporation.

Since 1972, CTC has established itself as one of the country’s top IT solutions providers. With 50 years of experience, headed by an experienced management team and staffed by over 200 qualified IT professionals, we support organizations with integrated IT solutions expertise in Autonomous IT, Cyber Security, Digital Transformation, Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure, Workplace Modernization and Professional Services.

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SUPPORTING ORGANISATION

SIRIM is a premier industrial research and technology organisation in Malaysia, wholly-owned by the Minister​ of Finance Incorporated. With over forty years of experience and expertise, SIRIM is mandated as the machinery for research and technology development, and the national champion of quality. SIRIM has always played a major role in the development of the country’s private sector. By tapping into our expertise and knowledge base, we focus on developing new technologies and improvements in the manufacturing, technology and services sectors. We nurture Small Medium Enterprises (SME) growth with solutions for technology penetration and upgrading, making it an ideal technology partner for SMEs.

PARTNER

HashiCorp provides infrastructure automation software for multi-cloud environments, enabling enterprises to unlock a common cloud operating model to provision, secure, connect, and run any application on any infrastructure. HashiCorp tools allow organizations to deliver applications faster by helping enterprises transition from manual processes and ITIL practices to self-service automation and DevOps practices. 

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IBM is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and business services provider. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Nearly 3,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and business services deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

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