LETTERS: The school adoption programme has been a part of Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Raub Campus, Pahang, a distinguished public university in the district.
Akademi Pengajian Bahasa (APB), one of the faculties, never neglects its responsibility to serve the community through activities, having adopted SMA Al-Ulum Addiniyyah Dong in Raub, Pahang, since 2015.
Since then, APB has conducted various events for the students of the school. In fact, this is also one of the university social responsibility (USR) initiatives and has been running since the establishment of the campus.
The selection of the school was based on certain academic and social criteria as well as their location within the vicinity of UiTM Raub Campus. It has been a practise where every year, the faculty and the school collaborate to come up with appropriate programmes for the benefit of the school students.
The planned programmes primarily aim to improve secondary school students' English language proficiency through innovative pedagogical concepts. Previously, school students look forward to visiting the university campus to participate in the organised programmes while also being fascinated by the atmosphere.
However, due to movement control order (MCO) and the restrictions imposed, APB was obligated to shift to a digital platform in order to continue providing community service.
Therefore, APB decided to organise a 3ME-Speech Competition in 2021 in collaboration with the school. The programme was held virtually, with 60 students from Form 4 taking part.
Each participant in this programme was required to prepare a three-minute speech based on the given theme, "MCO-How You Deal with the New Normal".
Not only that, but they had to create an original video clip relevant to the given theme, adhering to the guidelines in the competition rules. Interestingly, the speech presentation should have been recorded using a mix of media types such as images, audio, and video. The participants then submitted their entries via the provided link, and all of the videos were judged by APB lecturers.
The competition was unique in that it had two objectives: enrichment and artistic approaches. The aim of the enrichment is to improve participants' language skills by preparing an English descriptive text that they will present in three minutes with facial expressions and gestures.
Meanwhile, the artistic objective is to discover and enhance their ICT skills through a multimedia video presentation.
The university believes that, in addition to reaching out to the community during the pandemic, this programme would also attempt to build a solid foundation and understanding of the second language not only through traditional platforms in a physical setting, but also through technological means in a stimulating environment.
By participating in this competition, students were encouraged to communicate in the language while also improving their competence and experience.
It is indeed the responsibility of educational institutions and academics to shape younger generation and empower them to design their own successful paths by providing training tools and offering support in any way possible.
APB UiTM Raub Campus and SMA Al-Ulum Addiniyyah Dong believe that every student deserves an equal opportunity to demonstrate their talent and that there are no barriers to success and excellence in life.
Pauline Georgina Priya A/P Herbert Sundram
Zuriani Yaacob
Lecturers
Akademi Pengajian Bahasa (APB)
UiTM Raub, Pahang
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times