School cooperatives ideal training ground for students – Angkasa
KOTA KINABALU: Involvement in the running of school cooperatives can help mould ordinary students into leaders of tomorow.
According to Angkatan Koperasi Kebangsaan Malaysia Berhad (Angkasa) vice president Dato Haji Kamarudin Haji Ismail, students should be encouraged to join as members of their school's cooperative.
He said that this way, the school cooperatives would be able to guide their student members on the principle of cooperatives and become their leaders in the future.
He also said that the operation of cooperatives are not similar to private companies whereby only several people stand to benefit.
Attendees at the SMK Tansau's Cooperative Day celebration and Education Expo 2018 were told that shareholders of cooperatives which range from teachers to students at the school, can earn dividends from their shares.
He also commended the school for coming up with their own bottled water product, stating that the school should approach the cooperatives at other schools and supply the bottled water to them to generate more income.
At the same time, he also reminded the school that while the achievement of its cooperative was something that they could be proud of, they needed to ensure that the studies of their student members would not be affected negatively.
Meanwhile, SMK Tansau Excellent Principal, Siti Salmiah Samaie said that the school aims to attain RM1 million sales target by the year 2020.
She added that the school cooperative operates its own retail outlet within the school ground and that its customers were teachers of the school and their students as well as the students' parents.
Aside from that, she said SMK Tansau had also become the first school to start a day care centre for children of the school's teachers.
She added that it was imperative for workplaces to have their own day care centres for the benefit of parents.
The day care centre at SMK Tansau began operating two years ago, and ahead of the announcement by the Deputy Minister for Women Development, Family and Community, Hannah Yeoh, for all government agencies to be equipped with day care centres for children of employees, starting Jan 1, 2019.
This was following the many cases of child abuse in the hands of their caretakers.
“Day care centre at the workplace is a necessity,” she said.
In addition to the centre, the school also rents out kiosks and conducts car cleaning services.