SEC2018

THE CONFERENCE CLOSING REMARK

Assalamualaikum wmt, good afternoon dan selamat petang semua.

Ms Jane Poh, Administrator, Jeffrey Cheah Foundation, Encik Abdul Ghaffar Bin Bakar, Head District Education Office, Petaling Perdana, Puan Haniza Mohd Jabar@Ibrahim, Principal SMK Bandar Sunway, Puan Juairiah Johari, Senior Assistant, Special Education, SMK Bandar Sunway, Parents, Teachers, Special Education Students, Sunway University Students, NGO representatives, ladies and gentlemen.

Organising Committee Members taken at the end of the Conference.  Dr Kasuma is on the front row, 4th from left

Our two days conference entitled “Pathway to Empower Learning Difficulties Through Partnership” is at the tail end.  So how do you find the conference? Do you think we should organize this conference again?

For your information, this conference started from a mere discussion early this year; January 2018 between Ms Jane Poh and Puan Juairiah, during a school event in SMK Bandar Sunway, from just a chat, it became our objective and today we realized it. For me, this conference is a testament of passion, of wanting to get things done and make things happen, of teamwork and wanting to create something better for our children.

Kudos to the team involved in realizing this 2 days conference, all within 9 months from idea to conceptualization to planning to development to execution. You are all great! It is an honor and privileged to work with all of you.

The sad news is that Puan Juairiah will be retiring from her post as Senior Principal, Special Education, SMK Bandar Sunway in November 2018, less than one month from now. She will definitely be missed and on behalf of PTA PPKI, I would like to thank her for all her hard work, dedications, professionalism and excellent service throughout this years. We pray for her long life, good health, prosperity and continued success. We hope and believe she will remain active and continue her work and service with GOLD. Taking GOLD to even greater heights. Thank you Puan Ju.

The two days conference brings over 20 speakers including 4 from overseas; 1 from UK and 3 from Australia and more than 200 delegates.

We know what we know, we don’t know what we don’t know. Connecting all the speaker presentations, panel discussions and breakout sessions, coming from the government, NGOs, parents and international speakers, we now know what is needed, what we have and don’t have and what we could aspire for. The question is how and where do we go from here?

From GOLD and PTA PPKI SMK Bandar Sunway perspectives, we do not want this conference to end here, we want to compile our learnings into a report and submit it together with our recommendations to the Ministry of Education for them to look into the needs of the disables, to provide a pathway for the learning disables to have a decent life in the future, its either we look at developing a system and programs to prepare them for self-employment now or we prepare a much bigger welfare budget to take care of them in the future.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Everybody has a place in the society, but sadly people with disabilities have to justify their right and have to appeal to be accepted in our society.   While other children and young normal people dream and aspire to be doctors, lawyers and engineers. The hope, the dream and the aspiration of people with disabilities is just to have a normal life, to live like everyone else, to be accepted; it is too much to ask for?

Everybody has a place in the society and I wanted to recite an old Malay ‘puisi’ mentioned by Associate Professor Dr Hasnah Toran, Director of Permata Kurnia on the first day of the conference which means exactly that; everybody has a place in the society;

Yang capik datang bertongkat,

Yang buta meraba-raba,

Yang tuli leka bertanya,

Yang kecil terambin lintang,

Yang jarak tolak-tolakan,

Yang pendek tinjau-meninjau,

yang kurap mengekor angin.

Masing-masing dengan gunanya :

Yang pekak pembakar meriam,

Yang buta penghembus lesung,

Yang lumpuh penghalau ayam,

Yang pekung penjemuran,

Yang kurap pemikul tabuh.

⇉ Hikayat Awang Sulung Merah Muda, 1907.

Before I end my speech, I wanted to record my highest gratitude and appreciation to Jeffrey Cheah Foundation, Sunway Group, Sunway University, GOLD (Generating Opportunity for Learning Disables), Selangor State Education Department, Petaling Perdana District Department Office, SMK Bandar Sunway, Parkcity Medical Centre and Infinite Minds for sponsoring and supporting us to realize this conference.

Not forgetting our conference exhibitors; Oasis Place, Parkcity Medical Centre, Headstart Therapy, Breakthru Academy, Green Apple Hippotheraphy, Infinite Minds, Creative Cottage and Tunas Hijau SMK Bandar Sunway.

And finally, Sunway University student volunteers for being with us in this very noble journey, thank you.

Dr Kasuma Satria Bin Mat Jadi

Vice Chairman, Parent-Teacher Association (PIBG Special Education) SMK Bandar Sunway.

13^th October 2018 
Sunway University

Conference Framework

Stake Holders of SEC2018

The inaugural Special Education Conference 2018 (SEC2018), co-organized by Jeffrey Cheah Foundation of Sunway Group and GOLD, was aimed at initiating a platform with the strategic intent to connect, educate and improve collaboration and synergy among corporations, NGOs, schools, community, experts, special kids and parents. SEC2018 was also aimed to bring together stakeholders involved to network in an environment conducive for education, sharing, networking and most importantly sharing the smart partnership model initiated by GOLD in providing a seamless learning experience for special needs children and adults. The Conference was guided by the 4 drivers of which are Education, Networking, Industry Collaboration and Community Development, supported by a series of interactive activities and efforts by the organizing team.