KUALA NERUS—The less privileged community around Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) could breathe a sigh of relief after the university organised a tuition programme Tusyen Rakyat, Asnaf to Asnaf (A2A) for school students from the low- and middle-income families. These youngsters from the families of fishermen and small-scale farmers need to be given the opportunity to receive the best education to enable them to improve their family’s quality of life.

Director of Sultan Mahmud Islamic Centre Dr Riswadi Azmi said that the A2A programme was specially held to provide a platform for the university students from the less privileged families to impart their knowledge to the school students also from the same category.

“For this tuition programme, we selected and trained several UMT students from the less privileged families to teach the school students. For their contribution in the two-month programme, these UMT students were given RM800 each, which was donated by various agencies including Bank Rakyat.

This project has helped these UMT students in many ways, such as enabling them to earn some income, allowing them to give back to the community, and improving their self-confidence through becoming tuition teachers.”

Dr Riswadi added that the program would enable the school students involved to master the skills of reading, writing, and calculating in addition to improving their personal development and giving them motivation to learn.

UMT Deputy Vice Chancellor (Student Affairs and Alumni) Professor Ts. Dr Che Ruzaidi Ghazali in his speech said that a total of 80 UMT students from less privileged families became teachers and mentors to 300 school students from the same category from three nearby schools. He said that the five subjects taught were English, Mathematics, Science, Malay Language, and Islamic Education, and the sessions were held at the Islamic Centre of UMT each Saturday starting March.

He also added that UMT was always committed to ensuring the well-being and development of these special group of UMT students and would continue to be involved in helping the community.

Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Local Housing and Government Dato’ Raja Kamarul Bahrain Shah Raja Ahmad in his opening speech said that the model that was introduced would enable the students to enhance their soft skills.

“I believe that this new initiative will provide opportunities for university students to give back to the community. Programmes such as this will help to improve the leadership capability, motivation, self confidence and competitiveness of university students from less privileged families,” he said.

At the closing ceremony, Bank Rakyat General Manager Norashikin Shaharudin presented a mock cheque of RM14,400.