Facilitators Training Program

EWRF is committed to increase the level of proficiency in English among Tamil school students since Science and Mathematics are taught in English. Having come from poor socio economic background, a majority of Tamil school children face difficulty in learning English at the early age of schooling. Realizing this setback, EWRF has developed a program called “English Enrichment Program (EEP)” for Tamil school students who are in standard  One.

This is weekly programs are designed to teach English to students in a fun way through activities. This program will be carried out at five Tamil schools namely SJK(T) Puchong, SJK(T) Castlefield, SJK(T) Kinrara, SJK(T) Saraswathy, Old Klang Road and SJK(T) Effingham, Damansara starting from 24 of March till September.

A Facilitators Training Program was jointly organized by EWRF and Tamil Foundation on 11 March 2007 from 9am to 1pm at Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Kuala Lumpur. This program was attended by 30 volunteers who are keen to be facilitators in the English Enrichment Program.

The training session was declared open by Mr S.P Pathi, EWRF President. “A majority of Tamil school students come from low income families. They lack confidence and support from their parents to learn English as their parents were less educated in English. It is our responsibility to give a helping hand to them so that the students will have an additional opportunity to learn English better and would not be left out in the globalised world, said S.P Pathi. He urged the facilitators to devout their time and energy to assist the students improve their proficiency level in English.

Dr Gana Sundaram, lecturer of UKM conducted the training session for the facilitators. He shared his valuable yet precious teaching methodology to the facilitators. According to him, everybody has a different learning method. He urged the facilitators to understand the socio economic status and background of the students before start teaching. Facilitators also need to know the characters of each student in the class room so that the facilitators would be able to teach the students according to their capability and acceptance, elaborated Dr Gana.

The session ended at 12.50noon with the closing remark of Ms Subita Nair, Executive Director of EWRF. She urged the facilitators to be fully committed in the program and ensure that the program is successfully run for the benefit of the students.   Also present were Mr Manikam Krishnan, EWRF Manager who coordinated the program, Deputy President-Mr K Devadasan and Committee Member-Mr Joshua Edgar.