By Mas Aliza Abu
Friday, 15 May 2020: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) is the latest tertiary education institution to join YTL Foundation’s Learn From Home Initiative. In this case, not only will UKM students and faculty get free Yes 4G SIM cards with 40GB of data, the university’s Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities is working with YTL Foundation and FrogAsia to develop lessons in Bahasa Melayu and English for students in Standard 1 to Form 5. These lessons will add to the English, Mathematics and Science lessons already available to parents and students under the initiative.

Thirty undergraduate and postgraduate students from the English Language Studies Programme, Linguistics Programme and Malay Language Studies Programme will join the fellows and alumni from Teach For Malaysia in developing engaging online lessons that students can access to continue learning from home whilst schools are still closed.

At the final semester of their undergraduate studies, these students are required to undergo an eight week industrial placement. The collaboration between UKM, FrogAsia and YTL Foundation will allow these students to complete their course at a time when many industries have withdrawn their offer of placements due to the pandemic.

Tan Sri (Dr) Francis Yeoh Sock Ping, Chairman of YTL Foundation said, “We are delighted that YTL Foundation is once again working with UKM on a programme that will benefit the students in the country. We recently collaborated with the university’s Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities to research the effectiveness of re-designed, technology enabled classrooms on teacher pedagogy and student learning behaviour which subsequently formed the basis of several published academic papers. The use of technology in education is something that UKM understands well and we could not have a better partner to develop online Bahasa Melayu and English lessons.”

As a result of the Movement Control Order (“MCO”), UKM’s teaching and learning process has now shifted from in person lectures and face to face discussions to 100% online classes and lectures. The university uses its proprietary learning management system, UKMFolio ™ as its official asynchronous learning platform for continuous teaching and learning and for online examinations.

YBhg. Prof. Dato’ Ir. Dr. Mohd. Hamdi Abd Shukor , Vice-Chancellor of UKM added, “On behalf of UKM, I welcome the opportunity for our students to contribute to the Learn From Home Initiative and also thank YTL Foundation for offering free Yes 4G SIM cards with 40GB mobile data to UKM’s 28,000 students. For this semester, we have already started the online teaching and learning since 27 April 2020. I am very much aware and understand that not every student is equipped with Wi-Fi or good Internet connection at home. Therefore, this initiative will be able to help reduce the burden of the students especially for those who depend on mobile data to go through the online learning process and also to stay connected with their lecturers.”

The collaboration with YTL Foundation is a double celebration for UKM as the University is celebrating its 50th anniversary on 18 May 2020. Strategic partnerships with the private sector such as this will be important for the development of the university into a world class institution as UKM looks ahead to the future.

The Learn From Home Initiative is open for applications for the free Yes 4G prepaid SIM cards from UKM students and faculty until 9 June 2020. Other universities who have joined the initiative include Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), Universiti Pahang Malaysia (UMP), New Era University College (NEUC) and Malaysian Institute of Art (MIA).

YTL Foundation also announced that the closing date for applications for the free Yes 4G prepaid SIM cards as well as nominations for the free mobile phone with 120 GB of data for 12 months for students in B40 households will be extended to 9 June 2020 in line with the extension of the Conditional MCO.

Please visit www.ytlfoundation.org/learn to apply and to register for the FrogPlay Mobile revision quiz app and lessons in English, Mathematics and Science from Standard 1 to Form 5. For regular updates on the initiative, follow us on https://www.facebook.com/ytlfoundation or @ytlfoundation on Instagram and Twitter.