Orang Asli Children of Cameron Highlands, Malaysia

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Not Just An Environmental Organization,

REACH Reaches Out To Orang Asli (OA) Children



Cameron Highlands, Malaysia - With the elevation of just over 2400 meters, Cameron Highlands, situated in Titiwangsa Mainrange, is a getaway place for a lot of locals and tourists alike who just wants to leave the smoldering city life of Kuala Lumpur and have a breath of fresh air. The surrounding green tree –filled mountains that cover much of Cameron Highlands district is a stark contrast to what it was once before when growing tourism and development in the area almost threatened its beautiful landscape. It’s a place to hike where a variety of hiking trails can lead you to mountain forest or pass by acres and acres of tea plantations and strawberry fields. It’s still a great tourist destination in Malaysia but lack of planning and development expansions can still imperil the area’s environment. A devoted local environmental organization has committed to preserving its natural wonder.



REACH, which stands for Regional Environmental Awareness Cameron Highlands, is an environmental organization that is made up of volunteer educators, doctors, entrepreneurs, and one local full-time staff. Its main objective is the preservation, restoration and maintenance of the Cameron Highlands as an environmentally sustainable agriculture and hill resort within a permanent nature reserve. I visited Cameron Highlands not just to experience nature but to also volunteer. I have been looking for a volunteer project in Asia ever since I left my last project in South America. I wanted to continue doing volunteer work during my travel and this organization seemed to be a great fit and from the very first day I noticed their passion for their own beloved town and its people.



In discussion with Ms. Carrol Lawrence, an active REACH volunteer, we discussed the kind of projects that I could be involved with during my short 2-week stint and suggested that I could help initiate the Remedial English program because of my previous experience teaching English in Peru. She learned of the needs and saw an opportunity to help the OA children with English communication as they have fallen through the cracks of the Malaysia’s education system. She proposed the program to a local secondary school in Tanah Rata and upon the principal’s approval, we immediately started a 2-week pilot program.



There are government schools built in a few small OA villages for secondary school students. Government funded hostel housed some of these OA students to study in nearby schools. They are integrated with the rest of the student population. Unfortunately, they lag behind in the main stream educational system. The idea for Remedial English Class program came into fruition to give the OA children the opportunity to study English after school with the hopes that they catch up with the rest of their classmates. Depending on the success of this program, Ms. Lawrence hopes to extend it to other villages.



I met with the students’ teachers, Mrs. J.Vejaya Jayaraman and Mrs. Vasanthakumari Kalimuthu, on the first day along with Ms. Lawrence and discussed the premise of the program. We decided that the initial 2-week will be to assess the students’ writing, speaking and reading skills. The first lesson plan was based on the general information we received from their teachers about the students’ level of English. A total of forty-six OA students from Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Sultan Ahmad Shah School (SMKSAS) participated which ranged from 14-17 year old girls. The program was held at their government-funded hostel at Asrama Sg Ruil in Tanah Rata. I had struggled to get the students to relax on the first day. Ms. Lawrence had informed me that because of their culture, the children are not used to having a foreign teacher, much less a man teaching them. The students were so shy around me that they didn’t even look at me whenever they answered my questions. It took a little bit of my creative teaching method and vocal presence to get the students out of their comfort zones. But once the students felt comfortable around me, the class became very interactive. The most vocal and active student in the class, Form 4 student Juhaimiya, showed off her knowledge by helping other students. A few students were also willing to read a paragraph out loud, in front of the class.



On the following days, I created a basic English lesson plan after our initial assessment on the first day which consisted of alphabets, numbers, greetings, and a few random tests with basic instructions to find out what they already know. Afterwards, we divided up the class into 3 groups:

<!---->· <!---->Group A consisted of students with a good basic knowledge of English able to converse and understand instructions;

<!---->· <!---->Group B with average knowledge able to converse but requires assistance in understanding instructions; and

<!---->· <!---->Group C included students who required special attention as they were unable to recognize the alphabet and numbers

We created and conducted the lessons with the idea of assessing their skills. I was very impressed to learn that majority of these students were very well versed in conversational English. It amazed me that only less than 1/3 of the class required special attention while the rest needed to build up its vocabulary and practice with grammar and sentence structure. I was happy to know that majority of these students can easily converse. It was the confidence that they were lacking.



I also spoke to a few students after every class about their experience studying English in the past. Majority of the students have had others teach them English but not from a native speaker. These students were very grateful to have a native speaker teach them proper pronunciation and to correct their grammar. Form 5 student Maria certainly welcomes foreign volunteers to teach them and said that “I want to learn English and I’m happy that there are people to help us.” The teachers were very happy to have a volunteer teach these students as well. They hoped that the program would continue and extend to other OA students.



Roy, a homegrown resident of Cameron Highlands, assisted me in administering the class the first week. He was very excited and glad to be able to contribute his time teaching to these students. With his great command of the English language, students thought that he was a foreign volunteer as well. Nonetheless, he loves teaching this group of students “as they were very enthusiastic.” He hoped that as the program progresses in the future, the volunteers can provide a very entertaining teaching method. Roy believes that even a few hours of English course to these children would ”hopefully help them to get language oriented jobs regardless if they don’t excel in general education.” I left the program 2 days early and a local volunteer Melody, an ex SMKSAS student, and REACH full-time staff Saras, took over the classes.



These children deserved to be given the same opportunities as the students from neighboring schools. Roy believes that in today’s society, “when one can converse in English, the world automatically put you on higher ground.” They just need a chance.



As more volunteers learn of this opportunity, Ms. Lawrence hopes to achieve the main objective “to give the children the opportunity to learn and the confidence to converse in basic English.”

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