KUCHING, May 14: Two teachers from Sarawak were among 25 recipients of Anugerah Guru Inspirasi McDonald’s 2019 that recognised inspiring teachers who went beyond the call of duty in nurturing their students.
McDonald’s Malaysia, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, honoured the nation builders through the award in conjunction with this year’s National Teachers’ Day celebration.
The two teachers from Sarawak are Chung Sze Meang from SMK Lake in Bau and Muhammad Nazmi Rosli from SK Long Skrang in Lawas.
Each of the 25 recipients received a cash award of RM5,000 and a trophy.
Education director-general Datuk Dr Amin Senin presented the award to the recipients at a ceremony held at Setia Spice Convention Centre in Penang yesterday (May 13).
Former student Emily Chong, who nominated teacher Chung Sze Meang, was deeply touched and grateful for Chung’s willingness in becoming her team’s guiding teacher and training them for the Dinotrack Quiz Competition.
Even though Chong’s team did not win the competition, Chung encouraged the students not to give up, telling them the experience was more important than winning.
Chong shared that throughout her secondary schooling years and participating in various competitions, Chung had always been there to guide, motivate, and advise her and the team which saw SMK Lake emerge as champion in the National Level Solar Kitchen Competition in 2015.
Chung, who is described as a teacher with responsibility and patience, also often stressed to students the importance of applying what they have learnt in their daily life.
She is also not short of creativity and innovativeness in her approach to teaching, notably introducing the interesting mnemonic technique to help students memorise electrochemical series with ease and the funny PPAP (Pen, Pineapple, Apple and Pen) technique to remember chemical reactions.
She later set up the Innovation and Scientific Research Club in 2016.
From then on, she had led SMK Lake to win a gold medal and a silver medal at the International Invention, Innovation and Technology Exhibition (ITEX) in 2017; two silver medals and the Genius Award from Citizen Innovation of Singapore at the Bangkok International Intellectual Property, Invention, Innovation and Technology Exposition (IPITEX) 2019.
Chung’s efforts in the Innovation and Scientific Research Club have successfully led many rural students to get involved and participated in various state, national and international innovation competitions.
Muhammad Nazri Rosli, who nominated teacher Muhammad Nazmi, said he became the source of inspiration not only to him but hundreds of Malaysians following his development on social media.
He emphasised that Muhammad Nazmi, who used the nickname ‘Little Chuckee’ on social media, has definitely changed society’s perspective with his approach to teaching that was based on simulation to expose students to contextual learning.
Considering the remote location of the school, where he is teaching, his simulated teaching approach was able to close the education gap experienced by students in rural areas.
Flight simulator, tracking the moon, visit the National Zoo, a visit to the surgery room, and many other of his teaching themes may be quite familiar to urbanites but this experience was a ‘golden moment’ for rural children.
Muhammad Nazmi’s teaching approach clearly reflected the needs of current education. He also went all out to get recyclable things to create materials to aid his teaching. He is exemplary of an innovative teacher who will be the catalyst for quality education.
According to a media release, the third edition of the award received more than 7,500 public nominations between March 1 to 31 this year.
McDonald’s Malaysia vice president and chief marketing officer Melati Abdul Hai said the increase in nominations from 1,000 in its first year in 2017 to more than 7,500 this year was an unmistakable sign that Malaysia has an immense pool of exceptional teachers that were willing to go the extra mile and more Malaysians were finding it paramount to give due acknowledgement to these teachers in the country.
“When we read these inspiring stories from Malaysians, it really spurs us on to do more for teachers.
“McDonald’s Malaysia takes pride in our commitment to engage with the community, and this award, as well as all our other initiatives to support and show appreciation to these ‘unsung heroes’, are a testament to that promise,” she added.
Meanwhile, Amin also acknowledged that Anugerah Guru Inspirasi McDonald’s was a strategic public-private partnership initiative that was in line with the Ministry of Education’s goal of having various parties participate actively in the development of a robust and holistic education system. — DayakDaily
