UMT | Portal Rasmi Universiti Malaysia Terengganu

UMT-initiated Jungle School helps educate indigenous children

UMT-initiated Jungle School helps educate indigenous children

Monday, 05/12/2022

Share This Article :

One of the Sustainable Development Goals is SDG4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. To achieve this goal, all parties must be ready to relentlessly play their roles.

In line with the goal, the authorities and those feeling concerned have been looking into education deprivation among children from the indigenous tribes.

Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) is one of the universities showing such concerns. Through its project called the Jungle School, the university has been putting in the effort to help inculcate an interest in education among the indigenous children in Terengganu. The project is being carried out at Sekolah Kebangsaan Sungai Berua, Hulu Terengganu, with teachers from the school actively participating in the project.

The project focuses on nonformal learning activities outside of school hours. The fund for the activities was obtained from Malaysia’s UNESCO National Commission. The cost for building the Jungle School hut was paid for by an individual who cares about the level of education of the indigenous children at Sungai Berua.

At the school, there are still children who are unable to read, write, and count, especially those in Level 1.

The project is carried out by a team led by Prof. Dr. Khatijah Omar from the Institute of Tropical Biodiversity and Sustainable Development (IBTPL). The team includes nine other lecturers and a research assistant

To motivate the children to learn, the team has created 20 learning slots filled with interesting lessons including The Jungle is Ours, Wet Market, Sing Along, Let’s Go into the Jungle, Treasure Hunt, and Show and Tell.

To date, four slots have been completed. In some of the activities, there were participations from delegates from Sarawak Energy and from Universiti Ibnu Sina, Batam, Indonesia.

UMT welcomes any parties to collaborate and participate in the learning activities.

On 4 December, the Director General of the Ministry of Higher Education, Dato’ Haji Pkharuddin Haji Ghazali, visited the Jungle School to see the learning activities. He was accompanied by officers from the State Education Department (JPNT), Hulu Terengganu District Education Office (PPD), and teachers from SK Sungai Berua.

His visit to the Jungle School was part of his agenda while visiting SK Sungai Berua. He is in full support of the running of the Jungle School with its own syllabus to assist the formal learning of the indigenous children at the school.

For the four slots completed thus far, the attendance was 60-85% among the 40 children. The figure makes it worthwhile to continue assisting the school in improving the academic performance of the school children by inculcating their interest in learning. It is hoped that the effort will motivate the children and increase their attendance to school. It is also hoped that the two-year project will give a positive and continuous impact to the indigenous children at Sungai Berua even after the project is no longer running.