Study awards for orang asli students
SIX orang asli students took their first step in living their dreams of studying overseas when they departed for the United Kingdom from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport last Sunday.
For Norsyakinah Jam, 27, from Tapah, Perak, it was a historical moment as she is among the few orang asli students to pursue a PhD - the former lecturer will be working on her doctorate in Islamic Banking at the Glasgow Caledonian University.
Also excited to fly off to the UK was 22-year-old Chai Mei Ling from Bera, Pahang, who will be working towards her Bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering after transferring her credits from Universiti Malaysia Pahang, where she obtained a diploma in the same field.
The two are among 18 orang asli students selected for the Rural and Regional Development Ministry’s Overseas Degree Programme (Program Ijazah Luar Negeri) 2016. The scholarship programme, which started in 2010, has enabled 54 students to further their studies abroad at various foreign universities.
Pleased with the success of the programme, its minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said that this year it has exceeded expectations.
“The ministry’s target is to send 15 students abroad for studies every year, but this year we have 18 doing their first degree, Masters and PhD overseas.
“Six are going to the UK, while the others are going to South Korea, the United States and India. Two had already left for Australia in July,” he had noted at the scholarship award presentation ceremony at his ministry in Putrajaya in August.
Lauding the scholarship recipients for their hard work, Ismail also commended their parents for their support and guidance, especially in fostering the importance of education in their children.
“I hope these students will be fired up to give back to their community and help improve the lives of the orang asli when they return,” he advised.
On another note, Ismail said the dropout rate among orang asli schoolchildren has also gone down to 17.9% from 20% last year. Despite the decline, he stressed, his ministry is still prioritising the issue and will continue to work closely with the Education Ministry to further cut the number of orang asli school dropouts.
“For me, 17.9% is still high and it is still difficult for us to prevent the dropout. One reason, we understand, is because there are many orang asli students who have to stay in the hostel from a very young age, some as early as Year One.
“Others have to move to the secondary school hostel after completing their primary school in their kampung. This makes them suffer from culture shock as they have to get used to not only leaving their village but also to mixing with ‘outside’ people, and that is a big cause of the dropout,” he said, adding that the Orang Asli Development Department (Jakoa) has been tasked to arrest the number of dropouts, especially when they transfer from primary school to secondary school.
“I’ve asked Jakoa to focus on awareness and motivation programmes for parents to encourage them to send their children to school. It is not just students who need to be motivated about the importance of education to succeed, but the parents as well.”
The role of the agencies under the ministry such as Mara and the Community Development Department (Kemas), will also continue to be harnessed to improve the orang asli community’s access to education.
To boost the education development of the orang asli community further, Ismail added that his ministry intends to build more Orang Asli Students’ Intellectual Centre (Pipoa) in each zone of the country.
“All students who are selected to stay at Pipoa will have access to various educational facilities and will receive early and intensive training for their Form Three Assessment (PT3).
“One will be ready soon in Terengganu. We have a Pipoa in Rompin, Pahang, which started in 2012 and another one will be opened in the state soon,” he said.