Disabled teacher uses own money to buy art materials for students
JOHOR BAHRU: Nine years ago, visual arts teacher Yuszairi Yusof was involved in a nasty road accident that left him hospitalised for a month and on medical leave for almost 300 days due to the multiple injuries that he had sustained.
He is now categorised as a person with disability (OKU) as his left hand, which was crushed in the accident, has limited mobility due to the implantation of artificial joints.
Nonetheless Yuszairi, 40, who teaches at SMK Jalan Kota Tinggi near Kluang, does not allow his disability to get in his way – in fact, he is doing his part to motivate and help needy students.
Every month, he would allocate RM100 to RM200 out of his own pocket to buy art materials for his students, many of whom are from needy families, so that they could participate in art exhibitions and competitions.
He would also encourage them to remain motivated and pursue their love for art.
“I keep reminding them that they can have a bright future pursuing a career in art and that they can earn good incomes from it. In fact, a former student of mine has opened his own art studio and is doing well,” he told Bernama.
Yuszairi, who received the ‘Outstanding OKU Teacher Award’ at the and district levels last year, was among the 3,120 artists who participated in the ‘Artgeng Community Exhibition’ at Kompleks Warisan Sultan Abu Bakar, here recently.
With his support and encouragement, two of his students took part in the exhibition and all 10 of their paintings, including Yuszairi’s works, were put on display. In fact, eight bird-themed paintings by Yuszairi were purchased by the Johor Heritage Foundation.
The dedicated teacher would not only make it a point to enter art competitions, but to also push his students to take part in them, as well as participate in art exhibitions, in order to obtain certificates that are deemed valuable to an artist.
According to Yuszairi, the certificates given to them for participating in exhibitions would help them pursue higher studies in the field of arts after they leave school.
“I help the needy students by buying art materials for them (to enable them to participate in exhibitions). If I don’t do this, it will be difficult for them to gain access,” he said.
He also said society should change their attitude towards visual arts and refrain from treating it as ‘ a subject of little value’.
“In other countries, art is highly regarded. Our society must start viewing art as a lucrative field. For me, if there is no art, there is no culture,” said the father of five.
Recollecting the days after returning to work following the accident, Yuszairi said he went back to teaching in May 2012 and for four years, he had to walk with the help of a walking stick.
Initially, he even took painkillers prescribed by his doctor as he found it painful to walk.
“When I first returned to work, I had to train myself to draw again because my hands were not very mobile then.
“I proved to my students that despite my disability, I still managed to make a comeback,” he added. — Bernama