During the pandemic, our students expressed their desire to play a big part in solving the education problem. Drawing from our experience in online programmes, our principle in empowering the student voice, and our ability to work with students virtually at a nationwide scale; we believe this student competition will inspire many students on the concept of self-agency and community problem solving
We first recruited students to participate at the national level. Then we conducted a 3-day virtual bootcamp to equip students with skills to conduct online sessions, along with ongoing mentoring. The participants then delivered their lessons to a preliminary group of judges from the education space including stakeholders from UNICEF Malaysia, Teach For All, and the Malaysian education landscape. The winners of the competition receive a full scholarship to pursue their tertiary studies at a premier Malaysian private college.
Here, students showcased creativity and innovation in coming up with their own online learning experiences. We empowered students with the opportunity to solve pertinent problems that directly affects them, gave a platform for creative and innovative expressions, inspire new ideas within the landscape
It has since inspired an online teaching competition for teachers. Our YEC winners were invited to present their lessons to the participants in this teacher competition. Our YEC participants have also went on to start their own projects and podcasts to empower student voice and student agency in their own learning. Some of them also joined our Student Outreach Team - where they worked closely with our team to lead and facilitate workshops.
Moving forward, we are continuing this student competition in the physical setting to drive pedagogical innovations in the classroom. As a result of YEC, we are also developing a student-centred online platform that allows students to share notes/videos/quizzes on indexed academic topics - catalysing the independent learning and peer learning movement
Firstly, validate the idea with the key stakeholders in education: students & teachers. Ask students around you if this is something they want to do, whether this will excite them. Then, ask educators around you if it will inspire new pedagogical practices or the education landscape in your context. If it's a yes, then reach out to us. We're happy to share how we did it :)
