Orang Asli Students Are Heartbroken That Dedicated Teacher Is Leaving For Further Studies

We meet a lot of teachers in our lives, from kindergarten to secondary schools. Some teachers are one of a kind and they are willing to go the extra mile for their students.

Cikgu Samuel Isaiah is one of these unique teachers that gained national level acclaim for teaching English to Orang Asli students in Pahang. His English lessons are so impressive, even the amount of students passing English exams in SK Runchang for UPSR increased greatly.

Source: Facebook

Cikgu Samuel is also known for his Sekolah Pokok where he goes to the Orang Asli kampung after hours to teach them English under a tree.

Source: Facebook

He travelled 200km every day to the school and taught English classes by using fun learning styles.

Now, Cikgu Samuel has to bid farewell to his students after teaching them for eight years because he will be continuing his higher education in the United States next week, reported New Straits Times.

The students were in tears and some even hugged him while a few tugged at his hands as they couldn’t bear to let him go. Cikgu Samuel was rendered speechless by this show of affection. He played the ukelele (which he used in his classes in some lessons) to cheer them up. All of them sat and sang songs together.

Source: Facebook

Some students’ parents arrived to bid their farewells to the kind teacher as well and they were grateful for all the extra effort that the teacher has put in to teach their kids.

Cikgu Samuel was in tears and he cherished the sweet memories he had in the school. He said that he learnt a lot from the Orang Asli community, which includes speaking their language.

“Since my first day of posting (here), the pupils have become part of my family,” he said.

“Time really flies. It seemed just like yesterday that we laid the canvas under the trees for the sekolah pokok, using tablets with headphones, playing the ukulele and singing songs,” Cikgu Samuel continued.

“I am going to miss them,” he added.

Source: New Straits Times

Apparently, when he told the students in the school that he was going to continue his studies in the U.S., a lot of them thought that it was a joke.

“When I mentioned it, they started to laugh. But when the news turned out to be true, it shocked them and their parents,” he said.

Cikgu Samuel also treated the students like his family and it helped to boost their confidence.

Source: Facebook

He will be pursuing a Master of Science in Educational Policy and Leadership (Global and Comparative Education) at the State University of New York.

The duration of his studies will be two years and he is among five Malaysians to receive the Fullbright Scholarship. How awesome is that? It’s so well deserved!

Teachers like Cikgu Sam are one of the reasons kids can achieve great heights. We wish Cikgu Sam all the very best in his future endeavours!

Hopefully, the students at SK Runchang will continue to obtain amazing academic achievements!

Also read: Teacher Goes Against All Odds to Teach Orang Asli Children, Many Now Scoring A’s