SEPANG- With the tagline “Give them wings, let them fly”, Malaysia Airports’ flagship English language education programme Beyond Borders held its “Act It Up” drama competition among its four adopted schools SK Dengkil, SK Bukit Bangkong (A), SJK (C) Wah Lian, and SJK (T) Dengkil earlier this evening. The Beyond Borders initiative, under the organisation’s Education and Youth Leadership Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) pillar, is a collaboration with PINTAR Foundation which was established under the auspices of the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and Khazanah Nasional. The “Act It Up” drama competition required students to re-enact stories from the English books that were donated by Malaysia Airports to the schools in order to encourage the love of reading and inculcate the confidence for the language. The event also highlighted and recognized outstanding students who have performed extremely well in their recent English examinations and successfully completed the projects that were given to them as part of the Beyond Borders programme throughout the school year.
Acting group chief executive officer of Malaysia Airports Raja Azmi Raja Nazuddin commented, “It is very important for organisations such as ours to play a central role in supporting the national curriculum. By providing the right support to these primary schools during the foundation years, we believe that these children will go on to develop good study habits, moral values, self-discipline, and other basic learning skills. We must nurture them to be responsible for their own learning. These attributes are as important as scoring good grades in examinations.”
“Over the years, we have seen many remarkable improvements of the English language proficiency in our students and I am proud to say that this is largely contributed by the teamwork between our employees and the school communities, mainly the teachers and students. Malaysia Airports has always been heavily vested in the interest and growth of the communities that surround our 39 airports nationwide and we will continue to do so through our CSR arm,” Azmi further added.
Beyond Borders is a school adoption programme that was established in 2007 with more than 32 schools adopted till today. The programme has touched the lives of over 30,000 people consisting of students, teachersand parents. Through the programme, students and teachers learn and master the English language in a fun environment. Students are adopted for 3 years from Standard 4 to 6 and they undergo many English language-based activities and assessments such as the Developing Extraordinary Students Project, Living in English Project, Read and Reward Project and “Act It Up” Drama Competition. The teachers on the other hand participate in the Beyond Borders English Language (BEL) programme that encourages creative and effective teaching methods of the language.
The Beyond Borders “Act It Up” drama competition today was judged byDato’ Sri Siti Nurhaliza Tarudin, who is on the Board of Trustees of PINTAR; Puan Sri Datin Hajjah Sherina Leong - Aris, BEL Programme consultant; and Mohd Kamarulzaman Taib from Akademi Seni Budaya dan Warisan Kebangsaan.