Capt Mushafiz (back row, eighth from left) with teachers during the English for Life grant awards ceremony at SK Kemabong in Tenom.
ENGLISH and life skills are not just subjects, but powerful tools to thrive in the real world, says the adviser of non-governmental organisation Forces of Love (FOL).
Datuk Hussamuddin Yaacub, who is also Karangkraf founder, said this in a recorded speech at a ceremony to honour seven schools in the interior of Sabah that were inducted as centres of excellence in the English for Life (EFL) programme.
EFL, run by Sabah Education Department and FOL, focuses on building communication skills, human capital and personal growth, according to a media release by FOL.
Sinar Harian, the Malay newspaper owned by Karangkraf, is the official media partner.
Seven interior Sabah schools were awarded grants of RM1,000 for successfully achieving their two-year key performance indicators, reflecting their dedication to transformative English education in rural settings.
The recipients were SK Kemabong, SK Kungkular, SK Pangi, SK Simpang, SK Tilis and SK Sungai Api in Tenom and SK Pandiwan in Nabawan. Both districts are some 170km from capital Kota Kinabalu.
Five return air tickets were also presented to the top three schools.
The ceremony at SK Kemabong involved Murut cultural dances and English poem recitations by the pupils, even as the area was hit by an electricity blackout.
Pupils performing a traditional Murut dance during the programme.
Among those at the event was FOL member and Lion Air Group director of safety Capt Mushafiz Mustafa Bakri, who conducted a motivational workshop on English as a tool for human capital development.
The ceremony concluded with visits to SK Simpang, SK Tilis and SK Kungkular.
Under EFL, pupils are given an immersive experience on the way English is used in sales and marketing, science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) as well as robotics, storytelling, singing lessons and digital journalism.
Its core focus is to position English as a communication tool to boost confidence, employability and entrepreneurship.
Hussamuddin commended the headmasters, teachers, pupils’ parents and FOL volunteers for contributing to the success of this programme.
He also paid tribute to Education Ministry’s Abidin Marjan who co-founded the programme when he was with Sabah Education Department, saying: “His courage and foresight gave birth to English for Life.”
Stressing that human capital could not be produced by classroom learning alone, Hussamuddin said there was a need to expose pupils to real-life experiences where they could interact with their communities, explore their environment and apply in meaningful ways what they learned.
“That is why the involvement of our panel of experts, which includes hoteliers, geologists, wilderness medical doctor, a sape maestro and journalists, have been invaluable because they have greatly strengthened the link between education and real-world skills,” he added.
Launched in 2023 as a smart partnership between Sabah Education Department and FOL, EFL has grown from 10 schools to over 20 schools across Sabah.
It has distributed more than 10,800 educational items, including STEM kits, dictionaries and books valued at over RM100,000.
