Petaling Jaya, 11 November 2017 – 20 teachers from 7 schools in Klang Valley participated in the Salcon Train the Trainers Programme (Salcon TOT Programme) at Bukit Kiara Park, TTDI, to learn how to conduct a fun and educational river programme. This is the fifth year running in which Salcon is organizing the Salcon TOT Programme which is an extension of the award-winning Salcon Smart Water Programme organized in collaboration with non-governmental organization, Water Watch Penang (WWP).
The group of dedicated teachers, from 7 different primary and secondary schools in Klang Valley were equipped with the knowledge and skills on how to conduct the half-day Salcon Smart Water programme. The programme covers hands-on physical, chemical and biological river water testing such as flow rate, pH level, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, and catching of organism for biological monitoring activities as part of the methodology to identify the health of the river water.
Ms Chern Meng Gaik, General Manager of Salcon Berhad said "Due to limited manpower and facilities, we can only conduct the Salcon Smart Water programme 5 times a year, reaching out to an average of about 200 students per year. Ever since the TOT programme was started in 2013, the number of students benefitting from the programme has more than doubled, from an average of 209 to 451 students per year.”
“We are happy to see that the TOT programme is doing well to reach out to more students and we will continue supporting the teachers and schools which are interested to run this programme as it meets our objective of ensuring the sustainability of educating youths on the importance of river and water,” she added.
Since the start of the Salcon TOT programme in 2013, a total of 8 schools have gone on to conduct their own river programmes namely from SJKC Chen Moh, SJKT Puchong, SK Behrang in Perak, SMK Sains Tapak, Sekolah Sri Bestari, SMK Dato'Ahmad Razali, SMK Bandar Sri Damansara 1 and Green Ranger Malaysia Club.
Encik Nuzul Haqimi Bin Ismail , teacher from SMK Tapah Sains Perak said that: “I am glad that Salcon has provided us a platform on which we learn best practices and education techniques to educate our students on the importance of river and water conservation through fun and interactive activities. We feel inspired and empowered to conduct our own programme after undergoing the Salcon TOT training last year and have successfully conducted the river programme to our students for a total of 8 times to date. We hope that every teacher who attends the session today can benefit and take the opportunity to share the knowledge with their students in the near future.”
The President of WWP, Prof. Dr. Chan Ngai Weng, who is also affectionately nicknamed ‘the Malaysia’s Waterman’, together with his team, shared their experience with the participants on how to conduct a successful and sustainable river programme. “We are delighted to see the teachers participating actively to promote water conservation education. In future, we hope to conduct this programme for more schools from different states as water conservation education is important for every citizen especially when the nation is facing a water crisis issue,”” said Prof. Dr. Chan.
The schools involved in this year’s Salcon TOT programme are SMK Damansara Jaya, SMK Seafield, SJKC Puay Chai, SMK Kelana Jaya, SK Subang Bestari Dua, SMK Tropicana and SMK Sekyen 4, Kota Damansara.
The Salcon Smart Water Programme started in 2010 and has benefited more than 2300 students and 372 teachers thus far. It has received two prestigious regional recognitions which are Asia-Pacific Enterprises Leadership Awards - Educational Service Award and Asia Responsible Entrepreneurship Awards 2013 Southeast Asia - Green Leadership Award.