UNIVERSITI Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) in collaboration with Theta Edge Bhd through the #thetaCares initiative will distribute 10 computers to an indigenous community school in Pos Lemoi, Cameron Highlands.
This aligns with the aspiration to continually enhance Malaysia’s socio-economic development through corporate social responsibility (CSR) under the USR Group’s Adopt a Kampung project.
Indigenous communities typically face educational challenges with many indigenous children losing interest and struggling to attend school as some are fearful of separation from their families due to their homes being located far in remote areas.
To tackle these challenges and in the quest to enhance education of indigenous children, there is a need for innovative approaches that can engage and motivate students.
“This programme brings joy to the children at the school and offers them opportunities to delve into artificial intelligence (AI),” UTM Kuala Lumpur Campus’ pro-vice-chancellor Prof Dr Abd Latif Saleh pointed out.
“Concurrently, UTM also announces a strategic collaboration with Theta Edge which is an AI technology provider to assist in running this programme more effectively.”
Theta’s CEO Datuk Nuraslina Zainal Abidin said the group continues to support efforts to increase student access to STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects.
“Education using innovative approaches such as the fun learning toy library (FLTL) will enable hands-on learning with real-world applications, hence enabling pupils expand a broad range of skills while fostering curiosity and encouraging them to learn more about scientific subjects that will unlock their potential,” envisages Nuraslina.
“With these computer donations along with digital infrastructure, we aim to promote community development by nurturing the interest of indigenous pupils in exploring a broader world of learning.”
Through the #thetaCares initiative, UTM and Theta hope that the underprivileged pupils will gain good digital access to quality education, thus enhancing their learning effectiveness and fostering digital literacy.
The distribution of the computer units addresses the teaching and learning needs in the classroom, facilitates coursework in the field of information and communication technology (ICT) and eases the participation of pupils in ICT-related activities.
At the close of Wednesday’s (Jan 31) trading, Theta was down 0.5 sen or 0.82% to 60.5 sen with 158,500 shares traded, thus valuing the company at RM71 mil. – Feb 1, 2024
