Khazanah Nasional Berhad, Yayasan Hasanah, Yayasan Pahang, Yayasan AMIR and LeapEd would like to jointly convey our heartiest congratulations to Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Kempadang, a Trust School in rural Kampung Kempadang, Kuantan, Pahang, for taking Malaysia to the world stage by being named as a Top 3 Finalist for the inaugural World’s Best School Prizes in the Innovation category.
SK Kempadang has been shortlisted from more than 3,500 schools which registered from over 111 countries and will be in the running for the USD 50,000 (RM 228,925) Prize if they are named the World’s Best School in the Innovation category.
SK Kempadang is a primary school serving predominantly B40 students from what was once a small fishing community in Pahang. When the pandemic hit and standardised testing (UPSR) was scrapped, they needed a robust system to ensure effective continuous classroom-based assessment. They proactively collaborated as a team to develop their own tool, to meet their own needs. Their digital solution, SMARTZOOM, tracks student progress in real-time, testament to the school's capacity and confidence to innovate, and what our schools can do if upskilled and empowered to solve their most pressing problems.
We are inspired by SK Kempadang’s resilience in the face of the COVID 19 pandemic, the dedication to overcome their challenges, their innovative use of technology, and the collective effort of the entire Kg Kempadang community to make a real difference for the lives of their students.
Our teams at Khazanah Nasional Berhad, Yayasan Pahang, Yayasan Hasanah, Yayasan AMIR and LeapEd are fully supporting SK Kempadang to bring home a win for Malaysia.
We have all cast our votes on https://worldsbestschool.us.launchpad6.com/2022/entry/818 and alongside our partners, are now undertaking a call for action for all Malaysians to support SK Kempadang’s hopes to emerge triumphant, and further enhance and share their SMARTZOOM digital innovation to schools across Malaysia in an effort to transform education.
SK Kempadang’s success on the world stage will demonstrate what we can achieve for all Malaysian children if we all come together as one nation.
We would like to encourage all Malaysians to join us, and together, help SK Kempadang bring home a win for Malaysia by voting on https://worldsbestschool.us.launchpad6.com/2022/entry/818 before 11.59 pm, October 2, 2022 GMT (7.59 am, October 3, 2022 MYT).
SEKOLAH KEMPADANG BEATS ALL ODDS
The majority of SK Kempadang’s students come from B40 families. During the pandemic, the school faced challenges collecting real-time student learning data to inform lesson planning as physical classes shifted to online learning. In addition, standardised testing had been replaced with a school-based assessment model.
As the school did not have tools to track their students’ performance for formative assessments, the school team came together to design and develop a shared tracking platform for the school’s community, utilising shared Google sheets which everyone could easily access on Google Chrome.
Student progress was tracked with a simple red-yellow-green traffic light system with red indicating the students that required most help.
SMARTZOOM enables teachers to devise data-driven interventions, customised for the specific needs of their students. Each student’s progress is visible to all, and the school also worked in partnership with parents to ensure no child was left behind.
The SMARTZOOM digital innovation is another milestone achieved by the Trust Schools Programme at SK Kempadang, sponsored by Yayasan Pahang, as part of their commitment to quality education in the state of Pahang. The Trust School Programme has brought impressive improvements to teaching & learning, holistic student outcomes and parental engagement. This has led to an increased demand for places, with enrolment rates rising by 6%-7% every year since they first became a Trust School in 2015.
The educators and leaders of Sekolah Kebangsaan Kempadang have pledged that if the school were to win the World’s Best School Prize for Innovation which carries the prize money of USD 50,000 (RM 228,925), they would use the funds to improve and expand the capability of SMARTZOOM and share it with other schools across Malaysia.
The funds would also be invested in supporting the co-curriculum activities of the school, for instance helping their students continue participating in the National Robotics Competition
The Top 3 finalists for each of the five World’s Best School Prizes is up for Public Advisory Vote. Members of the public have until October 2, 11.59 pm GMT to tell judges who they think should win each prize at https://worldsbestschool.us.launchpad6.com/2022/entry/818.
The Judging Academy, comprising distinguished leaders all across the globe, including academics, educators, NGOs, social entrepreneurs, government, civil society, and the private sector, will be presented with the results of the public advisory vote and will assess the finalists based on rigorous criteria.
The winners will be announced on October 19 2022 at World Education Week. A prize of US$250,000 will be shared equally among the winners of the five Prizes, with each receiving an award of US$50,000.
All shortlisted schools across the five Prizes will share their best practices during events at World Education Week and through School Transformation Toolkits that showcase their “secret sauce” to innovative approaches and step-by-step instructions on how others can replicate their methods to help improve education everywhere.
