Nazmi inspiring students by turning them into doctors and nurses in the classroom when it was still safe for schools to be open.
MIRI (May 6): A Sarawakian teacher brought so much joy in learning with his unorthodox methods that a few parents of students at a rural school travelled for hours to Lawas town for better internet connection to nominate him for a national educator award.
Bringing the outside world into the classroom, the teacher turned classrooms into a fun place where education flourished and students loved learning with his creative learning aid by recycling items such as old car cushions, plastic bottles, boxes, plastics and even discarded kettles.
Lawas-born Muhammad Nazmi Rosli, 28, cried on learning of the extra efforts taken by these parents of his former students from the highlands of Ba Kelalan constituency to put up his name for RISE Educator Award 2021 to recognise inspiring educators in Malaysia.
“I am surprised. I never thought the parents would go this far to nominate me and this touched me deeply – I didn’t realise the impact of a teacher can be this big to the community,” he told The Borneo Post.
These parents live in the rural villages and took the trouble to take three to four hours’ drive by 4WD vehicle to get an internet connection in Lawas, the nearest town, to nominate him. Some villages are six hours away.
Teaching in a rural school is challenging because basic amenities like electricity and internet connectivity are lacking, and breaking stereotyped discrimination and opening doors to everyone became Nazmi’s top priority.
During the MCO, Nazmi travels long distance deep into the interior to deliver school homework, as online lessons are out of question for students in Ba Kelalan.
“No electricity, no internet connection, terrible timber roads, but the worst challenge we have to face is the discrimination against the ‘pedalaman’ children stereotype, saying these kids have no future,” he said in relating his four years’ experience at SK Long Sukang tucked in the valley of the Meligan Range.
Seeing a parallel between the comic book characters, X-men, and his rural students, he came up with the idea of introducing classroom simulation inspired by the X-men, which is a training hall called ‘Danger Room’ for hologram simulation of the outside world.
“Both the rural students and the X-men are discriminated, left behind and disconnected with the world outside, so the idea is Danger Room, by bringing the world outside inside the classroom,” he said.
“They had never been in a beach before so I made one in the classroom. They had never been to pet shops so I made one for them,” he added.
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Nazmi was in the dark about the nomination until his friends informed him while he was going about his work at his new school at SK Luagan in Lawas
“I don’t know which one of them who nominated me and I only know Puan Jenny (Bulan Gelawat) of Kampang Pa Dadar where her kid was a student at SK Long Sukang. I am still not able to contact the parents in the interior,” he said.
In her submission, Jenny shared how the teacher’s innovative methods had helped the students and the community, providing the students with experiences beyond their rural environment.
These include enabling their children to experience a swimming pool for the first time in their life by creating one from 200 discarded garbage plastic bags, turning the classroom into a Laundromat or lugging a used bed frame and turning it into a train in the classroom.
He is now among the 10 finalists of educators nominated for an award organised by Taylor’s College.
The winner is chosen based on having the most Facebook ‘likes’. The winning educator receives RM2,000 while the nominator receives RM500.
Saying Nazmi stood out as an educator, Jenny said this teacher travelled on a four-wheel-drive vehicle to their village to send learning materials and food aid to the pupils and villagers since the Movement Control Order.
Recently transferred to SK Luagan in Lawas, Nazmi thanked the Kampung Long Sukang parents and the surrounding community who supported him and trusted him to teach their children, praying for the best for all of them.
“It takes a village to raise a child, and this is the proof, one cannot do it alone, teachers and the community need to be together to help the pupils, acknowledge and appreciate each other, this will help in the holistic development of the pupils,” he said of the acknowledgement.
Turning plastic bags into a swimming pool in a classroom.
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