[Watch] Malaysian Teacher Creates ‘Danger Room’ Encouraging Disadvantaged Students To Rise Above Challenges
In his X-Men inspired “Danger Room”, Cikgu Nazmi built mock-ups of various scenarios using items he finds laying around to create a fun and interactive learning environment for his kids.
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“The X-Men don’t give up. They stand up!” is one of the many inspiring words spoken by Marvel comics’ Professor Charles Francis Xavier – known to the rest of the fandom as Professor X, the de facto leader of the X-Men – when faced against insurmountable odds.
Aside from battling evil forces that are beyond our real-world comprehension, Professor X and his school of superpowered “mutant” heroes endure a more sinister, bona fide enemy — discrimination for simply being born the way they are.
This is why it’s no surprise that when primary school teacher Muhammad Nazmi Rosli encountered prejudice against his rural and underprivileged students in Sarawak, the Cikgu chose to embody his hero and not let his young charges down.
Cikgu Nazmi previously taught at Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Long Sukang for four years before transferring to SK Luagan — both located in the provincial district of Lawas.
“People say; you don’t need to put in any extra effort. They won’t go anywhere. You teach them today, they will forget tomorrow. Why bother?”, said the Cikgu, revealing the discrimination faced by his poverty-stricken students.
Refusing to be discouraged by the negativity, Cikgu Nazmi poured his soul into educating 111 students from 13 different rural areas who attend SK Long Sukang by turning his classroom into a simple yet charming “simulation” to provide his students with the necessary knowledge and skills to succeed in life.
In the X-Men comics, Professor X took in all the mutants and trained them in the Danger Room, where he used holographic simulations of the outside world. I see that my kids face the same things – they are disconnected from the world, they face discrimination. So I bring the outside world to them.
Cikgu Nazmi
In his “Danger Room”, Cikgu Nazmi built mock-ups of various scenarios using items he finds laying around to create a fun and interactive learning environment for his kids.
Together with his students, the teacher constructed makeshift swimming pools, ATMs and vending machines, trains, pet shops, bakeries, laundromats, even an airport, and simulated things that we here in the city might find inconsequential, but are not easily available or accessible to children from these rural communities.
“My school’s goal is to prepare the kids to face the outside world,” shared the teacher stressing the importance of equipping each student with experiences they can treasure and remember for a lifetime.
During the height of the pandemic and when home-based learning and teaching (PdPR) were enforced nationwide, the teacher with the help of the school faculty as well as the community managed to bring education to his students who did not have access to things like the government’s TV Pendidikan channel or the internet by delivering homework and school materials directly to them.
So my school’s senior assistant and I went from village to village, delivering food and learning materials to 111 houses every week to 12 villages and one lodging camp. A single trip took two days. We even got lost in the jungle because we couldn’t find people’s houses.
Cikgu Nazmi
Cikgu Nazmi emphasized the importance of addressing educational poverty and stressed that there is still a huge gap between urban and rural schools here in Malaysia.
We’re not only struggling to close the education gap, we are working hard to gain the trust of the parents that schools are not only about academic achievements but kids can learn ethics, moral values, the place where they can learn to be human. They can learn and go way beyond the fields and farm and go out of their village. There is a saying; it takes a village to raise a child. This is a literal living example of this.
Cikgu Nazmi
Cikgu Nazmi now continues his remarkable lessons to educate and uplift the lives of children at SK Luagan. The teacher’s revolutionary “offsite” teaching methods had also been recognised and adopted by the Education Ministry (KPM) for rural and urban poor students nationwide.
On top of his wonderful lessons, Cikgu Nazmi even managed to provide his students with the means to study on their own by pioneering Malaysia’s very first floating library during the seasonal floods that would hit the area.
Read More: This ‘Boat-Thru’ Library Was SK Luagan’s Solution To Sarawak’s Floods
For his amazing efforts, Cikgu Nazmi was declared the winner of the Taylor’s College RISE Educator of the Year Award in 2021.
An acronym for Remarkable Impact in Student Education, the RISE Educator Award recognises the deeds and accomplishments of exceptional educators who made outstanding contributions to not only their students’ education in the classroom but also their social development in pursuing their passion beyond the classroom.
This year’s instalment of the award will see the RISE Educator of the Year winner and nominator bringing home RM5,000 and RM500 in cash prizes respectively.
To raise the stakes, Taylor’s College will also sponsor RM10,000 to the school of the RISE Educator of the Year winner to enhance their facilities.
The RISE Educator Award is open to students, or parents of students, in any public or private Malaysian preschool, primary school or secondary school.
Students and parents may nominate their teacher of choice from 1 to 22 April by describing the teacher’s deeds that impacted them, or their children, in 100 words or less.
Five finalists will be chosen from the entries and will have their stories posted up on Taylor’s College’s social media platforms, for the public to vote for the winner.
To nominate your remarkable educators, head on over to the RISE Educator Award website, HERE, or check out the video below to find out more about Cikgu Nazmi’s awe-inspiring efforts to nurture our future leaders.
@trpmsia RISE EDUCATOR AWARDCIKGU NAZMIPART 1/3 #beritaditiktok #beritaterkini #trendingnewsmalaysia #newsattiktok #tahukahanda #fyp #tiktokmalaysia #edutok #RISETaylorsAward #sarawak #cikgu #kreatif #edukasi ♬ original sound – TRPMsia
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