School ´failures´ given a second chance

A De La Salle education center has for 25 years been helping poor students who have failed in the education system but cannot afford private tutors or go to tuition centers.

The La Salle Learning Centre in Penang

The La Salle Learning Centre in Penang was started by Brother John D´Cruz using an alternative teaching method.

The center celebrates its anniversary on Dec. 18.

His system emphasizes skills acquisition, character formation and the building of human relationships rather than the memorizing of facts.

The methods are now used in 15 other similar independently operated centers throughout Malaysia and Singapore.

Sylvester Kumar, now 31, is a former student of the Penang center.

“I only started schooling at 12 and so I couldn´t catch up with my classmates,” he said. “I had to learn the basics — the alphabet, reading and writing — at the learning center.”

But eventually he entered university and earned a diploma in engineering. He now works for a mobile phone company.

The learning center´s two-hour daily afternoon program for students teaches them basic language and learning skills, computer skills, and allows them to play educational games, among others.

The signboard outside the center

A total of 21 students aged nine-14 attend the center daily for free. There are altogether 11 volunteers.

“In school, the children are taught subjects and to memorize facts but here we teach them skills for lifelong learning and living,” said Stephen Saw, one of the facilitators at the center who supervise students´ enquiry into different subjects.

Brother D´Cruz told UCA News that he started the center in 1984 after realizing that under the country´s education system, those who have learning difficulties, different learning styles, or who are poor, are disadvantaged.

After 17 years of teaching, he left his last post as a school principal to explore alternative teaching methodologies.

In 1996 Brother D´Cruz started a two-year training program for those wishing to implement his educational program. He has trained 54 such facilitators so far. Twice a year, the facilitators from all 16 centers meet to share views and discuss ideas.