Teacher for a day
Aclass of 35 students at Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) Kepong were delighted when Sunway Group founder and chairman and Jeffrey Cheah Foundation founding trustee Tan Sri Dr Jeffrey Cheah turned up to teach them for a day.
In the half-day session, Cheah shared with the students his life experiences in transforming Sunway City from a mining wasteland into a thriving township, as well as his passion for education.
As a corporate leader, Cheah believes that education is crucial to enhance lives, especially when the right education is received from young. As a teacher, he wanted to inspire and encourage curiosity, as well as inculcate the desire to learn among students.
Aside from sharing his personal experiences with the students, Cheah also gave out sound advice: “Education brings out the best in people. I am lucky enough to have the chance to pursue my education and to my best ability I want all of you to also have access to good education.
“Your young minds are able to absorb and pick up knowledge very well. The right values of integrity and humility can help you realise your full potential in becoming the leaders of our nation and global citizens contributing to society,” he added.
Growing up in the former mining town of Pusing in Perak, Cheah witnessed first-hand the impact of poverty on families, and came to a strong belief that education provided the optimum route to a better life.
SMK Kepong student Ng Xin Jie, 13, who aspires to be a musician when she grows up, said: “I really enjoyed the lesson with Tan Sri Cheah today and I am very glad to have this rare opportunity to be taught by him. I have learned many things from him and the most important lesson of all is though we may not be perfect, we can still achieve great success through perseverance and hard work.”
A day earlier, Sunway Group executive deputy chairman and JCF trustee Tan Sri Razman M. Hashim also taught a group of 29 Form One students in SMK Puchong Perdana.
The teaching session was part of the Teach for Malaysia (TFM) Week.
TFM Week is a significant event where key influencers, including corporate figures, celebrities and members of the civil service spend time as “teachers” for a day, co-teaching a lesson in school with a TFM Fellow.