RAUB, 1 DECEMBER 2013: The East Coast Economic Region (ECER)’s empower ECER Academic Training programme continues to prove its effectiveness in improving the academic achievement of students in the Region, with 17 of its participants in Raub scoring 5A’s and above in the 2013 Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR), with another 18 pupils from the district obtaining 4A’s.
The pupils, who were participants of empower ECER Raub programme, have shown a remarkable improvement in their academic performance despite coming from underprivileged families and academically weak background previously.
Undertaken by the East Coast Economic Region Development Council (ECERDC), the empower ECER programme continues to record a 100% passes rate for all its participants who took their UPSR exam earlier this year.
Under its Academic Training programme, a total of 160 empower ECER students in Raub sat for 2013 UPSR. The pupils who achieved 5A’s and above were from SK Raub (3 pupils), SK Batu Talam (3 pupils), SK Ulu Dong (2 pupils) SJK (T) Raub (5 pupils), SJK (C) Chung Ching (2 pupils) and SJK (C) Sungai Klau (2 pupils).
In recognition of their achievement, ECERDC celebrated the UPSR scorers at a special ceremony known as “Juara empower ECER” held at Pejabat Pendidikan Raub, Raub, Pahang here today. The participants received their certificates of achievement and award from the State Assemblyman of Batu Talam, YB Dato’ Abdul Aziz Mat Kiram.
Chief Executive Officer of ECERDC, YBhg. Dato’ Jebasingam Issace John said the 2013 UPSR results showed an impressive achievement recorded by the empower ECER Raub participants in terms of pupils obtaining grade “A” in individual subjects.
The number of students who achieved grade “A” in the English subject increased to 20.8% from 18.9% in 2012. Meanwhile, the number of students who achieved grade A in Bahasa Melayu 2 and Mathematics also increased to 53.3% compared with 43.2% for Bahasa Melayu 2 and 47% for Mathematics in 2012. The percentage of participants scoring an “A” in the Science subject also increased to 25.8% from 23.7% last year.
“We are very happy with the achievements and hopefully the success of these students will continue to inspire them to further excel in their studies as they enrol in secondary school. It is only through academic excellence that these rural students will be able to empower themselves and build a better future for their families,” he added.
One of the top scorers among the empower ECER participants in Raub was Vasanthara a/p Gunasegaran from SJK (T) Raub who obtained 7A’s. Before joining the empower ECER programme, she had no interest in the Science and Mathematics subjects. However, after attending the empower ECER Academic Training programme, she began to develop interest and started to gain confidence to master the subjects.
Another exemplary student was Muhammad Fakhrul Binti Mohamad Souti from SRK Batu Talam who came from a family of nine. Despite having to learn in a non–conducive environment, Muhammad Fakhrul managed to stay focused and obtain consistent results throughout the year. He attended the tuition classes organised by empower ECER Raub as his parents could not afford to pay for such tuition classes elsewhere.
empower ECER is a twin-pronged human capital development initiative of ECERDC which focuses on Skills and Entrepreneurship Training for adults and Academic Training for examination-year students in the East Coast Economic Region (ECER). empower ECER Raub has 400 participants consisting of UPSR, PMR and SPM students attending the Academic Training programme and 400 adults participating in the Skills and Entrepreneurship Training in 2013.
The Academic Training programme involves remedial classes and motivational sessions for the empower ECER students, who are taught learning techniques such as effective note-taking, mind-mapping and speed reading, among others, to enhance their academic performance while helping them develop their soft and social skills. Meanwhile, the Skills and Entrepreneurship Training programme offers courses that reflect the needs of the job market as well as that of the community.
The empower ECER programme was first introduced in Bentong, Pahang in 2010, and it has since been expanded to Lipis, Temerloh, Raub, Cameron Highlands and Kuala Pahang. There are currently 3,781 Academic Training participants and 2,050 Skills and Entrepreneurship participants in Pahang taking part in empower ECER.