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Assalamualaikum![br]Good morning everyone!

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Thanks for inviting me here today.

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A lot of great speakers have spoken [br]before this as well.

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My name is Dzameer Dzulkifli and I am

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The co-founder and managing director [br]of Teach for Malaysia.

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Today I'll be talking to you guys [br]about Teach for Malaysia,

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and specifically, a program [br]we are doing, which is

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Empower to Empower.

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What is this actually?

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What is actually an education?

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For us in Teach for Malaysia, [br]we believe excellent education

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in Malaysia is where all children

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are empowered to be leaders [br]of their own learning,

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their future, [br]and the nation's future.

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This is what empowerment means:

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the choice to do [br]whatever you want,

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wherever you want, [br]and not being afraid

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of being told that [br]you cannot do it.

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Here are some stats for Malaysia:

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44% of 14-year-olds in Malaysia [br]do not meet minimum

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international literacy [br]proficiency levels.

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60% do not meet [br]numeracy proficiency levels.

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1 out of 5 of Malaysians[br]do not complete

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their secondary school education.

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This is the stats.

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How does it look in real life?

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How do you feel this and see this [br]in the classrooms in Malaysia?

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I got a short video here that I [br]would like to share with you guys.

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My name is Rakis

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I...old...old...old

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You try to read this. [br]Just try only

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...

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I...

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I...wit...to be...

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No.

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Totally do not understand?

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OK, never mind.[br]I'll ask you another question

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Just give it a try.

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One two three four five [br]six seven eight nine ten

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eleven...twelve... I don't knoooow

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After twelve you don't know?

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My name is Jayalatumi.

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I old is twenty... [br]twenty years old.

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Twenty years old?

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How do we pronounce 13 [br]in English?

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Twenteen years old.

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Thirteen.

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Thirteen years old.

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OK, Jaya. [br]Can you please read this for me?

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When.

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When I...

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You try?

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When I...

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These are some of the kids [br]in Malaysia

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that have been going through [br]the education system

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and so struggled.

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Their background often limits [br]their opportunity.

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It's not they lack the ability.

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I personally was very shocked once,[br]when I visited the classroom.

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I went into a Form 2 [br]Geography classroom.

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There was an excercise going on.

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Most of the boys and girls [br]were active in the class,

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except for one of the boys, [br]who was at the back,

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sitting very quietly, [br]looking down.

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And I asked him, [br]What's up? What's going on?

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Kenapa berdiri di sini? [br](Why do you stand here?)

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Ada masalah tak? [br](Are you ok?)

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Boleh saya tolong? [br](Do you need any help?)

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And then he said:

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Cikgu saya tak tahu baca [br](Sir, I dont know how to read).

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This was a Malay boy [br]who could not read

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in Malay Geography class

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and that really shocked me.

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It wasn't the usual challenge, one[br]of a SJK (C) or SJK (T) challenges,

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but this was in his own language,

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his mother tongue language,

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that he could not read.

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And if you cannot read, you don't have [br]access to the information.

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These are what the stats [br]don't tell us about

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living in low-income [br]communities, right?

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Kids at the age of...

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Sometimes even at the age of eight

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have to start working for [br]their families.

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They don't have any role models [br]growing up...

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The university or the creative arts [br]or starting up barbershops as well

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they don't have the role model[br]and programs like JOHO are amazing.

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They did not pass UPSR and this has [br]created self-defeated attitude.

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No one has actually told them [br]"You can succeed!"

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"You can progress!" [br]"You can be amazing!"

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And that is what the kids really need:

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the sense of hope and motivation.

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So given all the challenges that we have [br]seen in the education stats,

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what does the little organization [br]like Teach for Malaysia want to do?

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We believe that talent is at the key [br]in any successful organization

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and more importantly in the [br]education system.

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If you attract top graduates and [br]young professionals

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that have never been considered [br]the career of teaching

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because they have been told [br]to be doctors, lawyers, engineers,

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maybe startups founders [br]or now-a-days bankers and consultants,

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who is going to pass down the [br]civilization to the next generation?

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Teach for Malaysia is going out there [br]to recruit top graduates to teach

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as full time teachers in underprivileged [br]schools for two years.

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During that two years,

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they all make an impact on the students,

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but more importantly [br]they understand what challenges

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faced by the students and how to [br]remove those barriers in a long run.

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They can decide to stay in the [br]education system

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or they can decide to leave,

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but there will be always an alumni movement [br]dedicated towards systematic change.

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Not only pushing the boundary of [br]one kid at a time,

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but pushing all of Malaysia [br]forward, simultaneously.

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Now I am going to show you a video [br]about one of our fellows

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sharing a short reflection.

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You met Jaya earlier on. [br]She's been talking about

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how she worked with Jaya for [br]two years in her fellowship

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on top of being a full time teacher,

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she did after school classes [br]with Jaya as well.

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In my first year of teaching, [br]I had a student named Jaya.

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She was thirteen years old when [br]I first met her.

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So she was at Form 1 and what [br]really strucked me with Jaya was

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She could not write and read at all.

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She knew the alphabet, but [br]she did not know how it sounded.

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So I offered to give her extra [br]classes after school

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and she took them up.

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And she will come to my house [br]every day after school.

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We will go through all [br]the books together.

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So we started at Peter and Jane [br]this was at Level 1A.

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And I realized that she could not [br]read the first word in the book,

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which was Peter.

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We started from there and [br]it was the level she began with

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and we moved from there to [br]few different levels as well.

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So after four months,

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she could finally finish [br]reading book 1A Peter and Jane

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and she asked me if she could [br]bring her entire family along

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to the reading session.

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Erm, I said sure.

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So she brought her family along [br]and I realized that

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her entire family could not read.

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So she has a brother [br]who is 16 years old at this point

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and he could not read as well.

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What was really shocked me [br]after seeing all that was

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the moment when I saw her at book 3A.

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She was at 3A at this point, but

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she was confidently reading to [br]her sister and her brother.

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And she was telling them [br]how to pronounce certain words.

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And at that moment,

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I realized that I was not just [br]teaching her,

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but I empowered her to teach [br]her entire family as well.

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So this is a ripple effect:

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One teacher impacts one student [br]one bit in a time, and

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it impacts the whole family.

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That is what we are looking for

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and so far, in the past 5 years

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Teach for Malaysia has recruited [br]253 fellows to be part of this program.

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31 of them are actually [br]based in Pasir Gudang, Johor.

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In 22 schools not too far away [br]from Johor Bahru

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and also Sungai Segget

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which I just learn a lot about.

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We are here... I mean...

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we'll be placed in an underprivileged school,

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low-income communities, [br]industrial communities,

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and we want to be working with [br]all sorts of like players and stakeholders in Johor

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to help these kids to see [br]a different future for themselves.

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They need the exposure and

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the most memorable line I had [br]that a fellow told me

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they said,[br]Dzameer in the end of the day

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we are just the routers.

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We take the kids and[br]show them the outside world

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and we get the outside world[br]and we show them to the kids.

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Once the kids see that there [br]is already a natural spark in them

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that continues to glow.

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Now what happened after two years Dzameer?

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What can you do in two years, right?

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What can you do with 250 people?

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So far, 150 fellows have completed [br]their two years

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and this is where the real magic of [br]Teach for Malaysia happens.

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What happens here is that [br]they decide what to do the next

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and out of these 150 [br]around 45 of them

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are in the education sector

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so they continue to be a full-time teachers

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with MOE (Ministry of Education) [br]as a civil servants.

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About another 40% are in the social sector [br]or education sector

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and then another 30% [br]is in the private sector,

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places like Shell, CIMB, [br]Bank Negara, McKinsey, etc.

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But what they are going to [br]do as a group?

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Here're a few examples.

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5 of them that remains as teachers [br]demonstrated such great leadership

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that they influenced their principals

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to start up an Innovative [br]School Transformation Project,

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the Trust School Program.

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They are teaching and training [br]almost 80 to 120 other teachers

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that impact another 1000 students.

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This is only on the third or [br]fourth year of teaching.

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Some of them decided then [br]that the classroom and

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the school environment is not for them.

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They wanted to start an after [br]school program.

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And the after school program[br]is really pushing kids

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because there is no curriculum

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there is only problem [br]plus programming.

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And when they did this,

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they were so successful that they are [br]taking kids from low-income communities

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they were even challenging [br]the Sekolah Berasrama Penuh

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and the International School kids

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and programming and [br]coding challenges

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and they were winning awards.

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And then spotted them[br]and telling them that

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Hey we have been thinking about

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rewriting the computer and [br]science curriculum

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can you come help us do it?

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You understand the system,[br]you understand the computer science,

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let's do it together!

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And so they appointed them to rewrite

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the computer science curriculum

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as well as train 22 other pilot [br]schools to run this program.

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Another group of alumni said,

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You know, I have been teaching in classroom

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and the most things that I struggle[br]with is without resources.

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I don't have exciting book, [br]I don't have exciting resources,

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I can't take my kids for trip,

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It is so difficult...

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What we are going to do?

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Let's start a crowd-funding platform [br]for teachers.

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Not just for Teach for Malaysia fellows

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but every teacher can sign up a program and fundraise.

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And so far they have raised [br]more than 380000 MYR

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for different projects around schools.

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This is only with Alumni

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with in the third fourth to fifth year [br]of the program experience.

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In the next twenty or thirty years,

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in fact Teach for America,

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Teach for Malaysia is part of [br]the global network

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called Teach for All

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And Teach for America is one of [br]the oldest partners there

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where you have even [br]the Minister of Education

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as well as the Head of the IRS

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was a Teach for America alumni or [br]is a Teach for America alumni.

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In fact, I just heard about a story that

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one of them was even a fireman, [br]and if there is a fire in the school

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you know you will be getting there first.

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So it takes everybody, it takes a village [br]to raise a child in that sense.

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I am going to leave you again

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talking about this thought how the empowerment [br]has such a strong ripple effect.

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You heard about Suet Lee teaching Jaya

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who then impacted her [br]16 years old brother.

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I am going to leave you [br]with one video to thank the teachers,

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but also to see how Suet Lee's little brother [br]Jason also became a fellow.

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The amount of joy

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satisfaction enjoyment

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(Audiences clapped)

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I also wish that I had a teacher [br]like Ms. D or Jason as well

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and I know many of you do

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And so as I leave today [br]I just want to ask you

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Who was that teacher that [br]left a spark in you?

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We should tell them and thank them [br]while they are still around.

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And if you want to empower a kid [br]or kids in Malaysia

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What would you say to them?

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Empower to empower.

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Thank you very much.