NCER - Education & Human Capital

Initiatives

Digital Resource Centre

Digital Resource Centre (DRC) is envisaged, in the short-term, to be a place where school citizens can easily access, learn and explore the world through the use of information technology. To ensure the sustainability of the DRC, over the medium and long-term, the facility can also serve as the community’s business centre where parents can look for information that can enrich the learning environment at home, farmers can track the price of crops, fishermen can access information relating to weather conditions and home stay owners to promote tourism activities within the area. Thus, creating a society who will be better informed and abreast with all development.

Educational City Hostel

Edu-Citi-tel (short form for Educational City Hostel) is essentially an integrated accommodation and learning facility designed to provide a conducive environment for Standard 5 and Standard 6 male students from rural areas and hail from families with low-socio economic background. These students will be carefully screened through a selection process conducted jointly between NCIA and MoE. Throughout the remaining period of the 9th Malaysia plan, Edu Citi-tels will be established in P. Pinang, Alor Setar and Taiping each housing approximately 100 male students (i.e. 50 from Standard 5 and 50 from Standard 6).

Selected students will spend 2 years in their respective Edu Citi-tel and will attend top primary schools within reasonable vicinity of the facility. In selecting the top primary schools, NCIA will seek inputs from MoE and local communities to maximize the opportunity of success for the program. During post-school hours, these students will participate in character-building activities (i.e. sports, spiritual, musical, arts, community-service, academic, etc.) under the supervision on housemasters and tutors. Edu Citi-tel citizens will be allowed to go back to their hometown on a periodic basis to ensure that these students retain a sense of affinity with their families and local communities.

Career Profiling & Career Day

Career Profiling is a tool that can help students to articulate their interest, determine their personality and identify matching careers. Leveraging on this self-assessment tool is an important early step in career awareness amongst children and the online nature of the initiative fits in well through the availability of a Digital Resource Centre. The program prompts students to answer questions about their interests and personality, and then offers career ideas. This in turn will encourage them to find out more about the careers identified for them. As students gain more understanding of the preparation needed for specific careers, and with intervention from school counsellors, they may begin to consider the role that post-secondary education and training could play in their future. This Career Profiling will be conducted annually for students in Standard Six, Form Three and Form Five. Careers Day will also be organised at schools and / or district level to further enhance the desirable impact from the career profiling exercise.

E-Tutor

E-Tutor is an ICT-based learning initiative targeted to enhance students’ understanding in key areas of Mathematics and Science as well as amplifying the effectiveness of teachers teaching those subjects through the guidance of a ‘virtual teacher’ using English as the medium of instruction. This program will encourage students to learn at their own pace and provide flexibility in terms of studying time. Dedicated workshops for teachers will also be conducted to ensure the continuity and sustainability of this project. 1:1 computing aimed for Standard 1 students will be one of the key initiative under the E-Tutor program.

International Gap Students

International Gap Students is essentially a student exchange program where participants, aged between 18 – 21 years old, will spend between 6 – 12 months living and studying in a foreign country. The program will primarily be divided into 3 major components: (i) Sending NCER youths out internationally; (ii) Bring international youths to NCER; and (iii) Teacher exchange program. This program is targeted for SPM-leavers as well as unemployed youths with potential in NCER and will typically commence every January. The main targeted countries are Australia, Argentina, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Germany, New Zealand and Switzerland. The program gravitates around school placements, family and community life. It is a full immersion experience that will prepare participants to face a myriad of challenges throughout their career. NCIA will incur the necessary investments needed for the program since likely participants from NCER will be those with low-socio economic background.

Teacher Training

A successful pilot was conducted in Perak in 2007 when expert teachers from New Zealand will be brought in to help enhance teaching experience amongst school teachers. These expert teachers will monitor the teaching practices of local teachers, recommends ways to improve teaching and supervise the effectiveness of local teachers in implementing the suggested recommendations. Selected local teachers will follow these expert teachers from New Zealand as apprentices and it is envisaged that over a 3-year period, these apprentices will be capable to reach the level of expert teachers and in turn will have their own group of fresh apprentices. This is one of the key features to ensure the sustainability of the program and help to trigger a positive trickle-down effect not only in NCER but also the whole country in the longer-term. The use of information technology will also be promoted in the program to maximize the learning impact to teachers, students and school administrators. At the end of the 3 year period, it is envisaged that more than 200 schools in NCER, both primary and secondary, will benefit from this program.