KENNETH Chai, despite growing up in a struggling household, had many opportunities as a young boy that enabled him to become the person he is today.
With the help of scholarships and sponsorships, he was able to win a robotics competition in secondary school, fulfil his studies at PETRONAS, and pursue his second degree in Scotland.
Thankful for the opportunities, the 36-year-old social entrepreneur wondered what if every Sarawakian child had the same or similar opportunities?
“Then what would they be able to create?”
He was further driven by the scarcity he witnessed while working in the oil and gas industry in underdeveloped countries such as Inner Mongolia, North Korea, and Siberia, where access to the internet was limited.
Wandering through time when his secondary school had just established a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths (STEM) club, he thought he could do the same.
And so, he did, together with his childhood friends in 2017.
Their main objective is to ensure every child, regardless of status, has equal opportunities for STEM education.
Known as The Learning Curve (TLC), Chai and his team had piloted many projects that benefited children in town and on the outskirts of Sarawak, namely Padawan, Serian, Lundu, Kapit, and others.
Inspired by his mother, who is a teacher, his endeavour has seen him create communities within a group of schools in close proximity and teaching students.
“Inadequate infrastructure facilities have made it difficult for rural schools to teach STEM subjects to their students. With the establishment of TLC, we were able to overcome this barrier by looking for schools in the area with the best infrastructure and using them to host several other schools nearby.
“The infrastructure we are looking for is often good internet access and access to electricity. Apart from teaching students three to four times a year, we also train teachers to manage the STEM clubs in their respective communities. And if the opportunity arises, I would bring the students and teachers to Kuching to join in all of the Science events that are held here,” said Chai.
With sponsorships from CSR programmes such as Sarawak Energy, MEASAT, MYNIC, and other government agencies, Chai was able to extend the opportunity to over 10,000 students, including schools in Kuala Lumpur and Penang.
His determination to reach as many students as possible through these rural programmes stems from his belief that every child has the right to an education.
“I teach children of various backgrounds. As a teacher, I don’t discriminate. I can teach one child, 10 children, or even 20, but I always use the same voice. I don’t lose any money or time. To me, we should never deny children an education because if something bad happens to them when they grow up, we would also blame ourselves — why didn’t we teach them when they were young?”
Science on Wheels
While many students were able to get involved in Chai’s STEM club, he said many more were unable to due to infrastructure limitations such as geographic isolation and poor to non-existent road infrastructure.
“Many schools are not accessible by car. Many of them lack electricity and do not have science laboratories. It is also very expensive to build a lab.”
According to Chai, in order to further reach out to non-urban communities in the state, Sarawak Digital Economy Corporation (SDEC) agreed to support his proposal to equip two 4WD trucks running as STEM Lab Bergerak (Science on Wheels), of which TLC is now one of many delivery partners.
Each truck has a generator, 16 laptops, two televisions, satellite connectivity, and 16 tables. Chai added that the furthest his team and he had travelled was to Lawas — “And it’s something we will continue to do.”
The normal procedure, he explained, is for the school principal to send in an invitation, and the visit is approved by the Education Ministry through the State Education Department. He would then deploy a team to the school.
“Normally I would tell the principal not to choose based on the results. My students who excel are not always from the A class, private schools, or Kuching. We just have to provide them with equal opportunity.”
Digital classroom project
The next issue concerning children’s education is the weight of their school bags and the rising cost of education.
Chai also lamented the fact that teachers are burdened with a lot of administrative work, which makes teaching less enjoyable as they need to complete everything after school.
He offered a solution by introducing the use of tablets in place of textbooks, which is currently undergoing research and development at four schools within the rural communities.
The tablets make it easy for teachers to upload student progress to the school’s and government’s websites.
Students, on the other hand, can enjoy limitless education through a gamified system in which they must play games to obtain class attendance.
“When they finish playing everything, there will be a mark and it will be uploaded. There is now a lesson plan, student progress, timing of each session, and overall academic performance available to parents, teachers, principals, and the Ministry of Education.”
In order to prevent misuse, Chai made the tablets himself to meet the needs of the students.
“It is waterproof and rubber-coated. Every chapter is a game. It does not have a functional camera, only a lens with AI capabilities. It has an HDMI output.”
The tablet also contains the student’s homework and textbooks.
Supported by SDEC under the Digital Village Accelerator (DiVA) programme, Chai added that there is an e-bookstore inside the tablet that allows students to purchase e-books from local authors.
He believes that this digital classroom project, which will be launched soon as DELIMA, would help children learn better as a result of digital advancements while also allowing teachers to focus on what they do best — teaching.
Bridging the digital gap
Chai’s visit to the rural communities of Sarawak was equally eye-opening, as he realised the gap between the communities there and in Kuching.
One prominent gap was unequal access to digital technology, resulting in a digital divide.
In today’s modern world, technology is strung along as a necessity, piecing every limitation beyond the horizons.
To him, digitalisation can be the only democratising tool if applied correctly.
“The only reason we have what we have now is because digitalisation democratises everything. Because it is digital, underprivileged and rural communities can gain access to a wide range of resources.
“When you think about it, you couldn’t afford a lot of things back then, we can now because everything is digital. A person in a village in Lawas can today get the latest Android phone through online shopping websites.”
The TLC co-founder will share more of his thoughts on his perspective of “Technology helping the world to learn without limits” as a panellist at the upcoming 27th World Congress on Innovation and Technology and the 6th International Digital Economy Conference Sarawak (collectively known as WCIT|IDECS 2023).
The event is a much-anticipated international technology congress that will be held from October 4 to 6 at the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK).
Themed “Fulfilling the Promise of the Digital Age: Innovation and Technology Driving Economic Prosperity, Social Inclusivity & Environmental Sustainability” and “Advancing Digital Economy for Sustainable Development” respectively, the event will take place simultaneously and is expected to bring together more than 10,000 attendees, including industry experts, policymakers, and entrepreneurs from over 80 countries.
