Education

  Star Education Fair

Sunday November 8, 2009

A lift up for orang asli

BY CHAN LI LEEN

NORITA Alang, 20, has spent more than half her life away from her family just to get an education.

“I have been staying at hostels since my primary school years because the schools are far away from our village.

“It used to take me an hour to walk to my primary school, SK Pos Legap in Sungai Siput,” said the 20-year-old orang asli girl, who today continues to live away from home.

The STPM student who will be sitting for her exams soon now studies at SMK Ulu Kinta in Ipoh and stays at the school hostel.

In fact, her siblings too have lived away from home because of the distance and travelling time involved in getting to school.

Raja Datuk Seri Eleena presenting a gift to Norita. Looking on is Suki Mee

Norita says that the lack of accessibility is why orang asli children drop out of school.

In her case, she has her mother to thank for. “My motivating force has always been my mother, who keeps reminding my siblings and I that the world has advanced and only through education can we move up,” said Norita, who intends to go to university after this.

Giving Norita a helping hand in getting there is the Perak Orang Asli Foundation (YOAP), which is running a programme that recognises the academic achievements of orang asli students.

“After attending courses that teach us techniques on answering exam questions, I’m now getting B’s instead of C’s,” she said.

In fact, YOAP has been able to significantly reduce dropout rates in the state over the last two years, through a programme that recognises the academic achievements of orang asli students.

Its chairman Suki Mee said the dropout rate among primary school children had improved from 30% to 20% since the programme took off in 2008.

“Statistics by the Orang Asli Affairs Department also shows a significant drop from 50% to 30% in those that failed to make it from primary to secondary school,” he noted.

In Perak, there are about 3,000 orang asli children studying in 27 national schools.

There are, however, no records to indicate the number of those in secondary schools. A rough estimate puts the figure at about 1,500 students.

“Our dropout rates are high but it is improving with the programme,” Suki Mee said after attending the opening of this year’s programme by Yayasan Sultan Azlan Shah Foundation trustee Raja Datuk Seri Eleena Azlan Shah at SMK Ulu Kinta, Ipoh, recently.

With its own money and a grant of RM112,500 from the royal foundation, YOAP was able to provide tuition classes for 600 of its UPSR, PMR and SPM students in two primary and two secondary schools in 2008. This year, the royal foundation had given RM117,700 to make up for the RM200,000 allocated by YOAP towards the programme, benefiting six additional schools.

“We pay the school teachers to give our students extra classes.

“At the same time, we give each student RM300 to purchase workbooks for them to revise past-year questions as well as for them to buy pens, pencils and other stationery that they need to sit for their exams,” he said.

He said many orang asli schools, especially in rural areas, were still struggling with 0% passes. One of the aims of the programme was to increase the number of those who passed their exams, besides improving the quality of their results from passes and credits to distinctions. Part of the programme’s objectives, Suki Mee said, was also to motivate the parents.

Orang asli students during a choral reading performance at the event. — SAIFUL BAHRI / The Star

“We try to motivate not only the students but also their parents because we believe that at the primary level, it is the parents who need to understand the importance of education,” he said.

Suki Mee noted that one of the main problems of getting orang asli children to move on to secondary school was their reluctance to leave their families and settlements to live in hostels.

“I think it is a very good concept that the government has built primary schools closer to the orang asli settlements.

“However, they encounter the same problems again when they get into secondary school,” he said.

There are presently no secondary schools especially for orang asli children in Perak and they have to attend schools away from their settlements.

With such a good programme in place, more schools have asked to be included so that they can help children from the community.

“There has been an overwhelming demand but it is hard to accommodate all.”

Suki Mee added that the foundation was trying to get more corporate bodies to come forward to help.

“To us, even RM1,000 makes a big difference,” he said.

Welcoming the recent budget announcement of RM41mil for orang asli in the country, Suki Mee said he hoped the money would reach those it had been intended for.

He also hoped that the amount would go towards education for the community.

“We believe that only through education can we alleviate the orang asli community from poverty and bring them on with other communities in line with the 1Malaysia concept.

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