'Cikgu Kickstart' initiative shortlists 15 teachers

 

Fifteen teachers have been shortlisted for an opportunity to make their dream classrooms a reality through the Cikgu Kickstart grant initiative.

Hosted by Edufication, an independent non-profit co-founded by Global Teacher Prize 2020 top-10 finalist Samuel Isaiah, the Cikgu Kickstart Awards aim to fund 15 best ideas from Malaysian public school teachers to address shortcomings due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

"This pandemic is a test of the ability of the education system to cope with and adapt to evolving and unprecedented challenges.

"Hence, to mitigate learning loss, I believe we need to respond communicatively and collaboratively with teachers, instead of working in isolation," Samuel said.

"I have witnessed many teachers growing beyond themselves as this crisis has somehow liberated their creativity and renewed their passion for teaching.

"Thus, we want to find these teachers who are sincere about delivering change through Cikgu Kickstart, to share, spread, improve, and scale their ideas," he said.

All 15 finalists will pitch their ideas via Facebook Live this Saturday to a panel of industry leaders who will serve as judges.

Among the project line-up include a sensory room, an environmental educational programme targetting an indigenous community in Sarawak, as well as a mobile-assisted language learning application.

The Top Three pitches from 15 finalists will be chosen to receive RM6,000 each to implement their ideas, while the remaining 12 will receive RM2,000 each for their projects.

The announcement of the winners is scheduled to be on June 5, according to organisers, supported by funders YTL Foundation and co-funders ECM Libra with Edufication.

 YTL Foundation programme director Kathleen Chew said they believe teachers are best able to create the solutions to help their students overcome learning loss experienced over the past year of the Covid-19 pandemic.

"Cikgu Kickstart aims to support teachers to catalyse their ideas and provide the platform for the best solutions to be piloted and then to scale, benefitting students across the country.

"We are excited to be part of this award that will recognise these outstanding teachers," Chew said, adding that over 15 schools and 2,000 students are expected to benefit directly from the grants.

Aside from the funds, Cikgu Kickstart's partnership with Teach For Malaysia and PEMIMPIN will also facilitate the scaling of the shortlisted ideas through the production of a ‘Social Innovation Toolkit’ that can be adopted by more teachers across Malaysia.

All winners of the grants will be announced in an online session on June 5. - Mkini