TEMERLOH, PAHANG, 16 JANUARY 2013:The East Coast Economic Region Development Council (ECERDC) today organised a special motivational programme for 150 Year 5 and 6 pupils of SJK (T) Mentakab and their teachers in conjunction with Kalvi Ponggal, the annual Harvest Festival celebrated by Malaysians of Tamil descent.
The programme, which was held as part of ECER’s empower Temerloh human capital development initiative, was officiated by the State Assembly Representative for Mentakab, YB Dato’ Chuah Boon Seong.
ECERDC Chief Executive Officer, Dato’ Jebasingam Issace John said the motivational session is one of the many initiatives organised by ECERDC under its empower programme, which was designed to improve the quality of human capital in the East Coast Economic Region (ECER), particularly among disadvantaged communities.
Today’s motivational programme was mainly aimed at inspiring and encouraging the students to ponder on the importance of hard work, discipline and creative thinking in obtaining good academic results, in line with the spirit of Ponggal.
“While looking back at what have been ‘harvested’, the festival also urges the people to look forward and prepare ourselves for a better tomorrow. This is a universal story of success, regardless of race or religion,” he said.
During the programme, Mr. Arivendran, the Academic Coordinator of Sri Murugan Centre who is also a school teacher, delivered a motivational talk to inspire the students to achieve academic and personal success.
ECERDC’s empower Programme consists of the Academic Skills Training for primary and secondary school students, as well as Skills and Entrepreneurship Training for adults. To date, 6,000 students and 4,300 adults from across all communities in ECER have benefitted from empower since it was launched in 2010.
For students, empower focuses on academic performance, soft skills and independent learning. Meanwhile, courses under the Skills and Entrepreneurship Training for adults were designed based on the market needs within ECER, whereby the newly acquired skills are expected to improve the job and business prospects of participants, as well as raise their income levels.