SKTBI is one of the three Microsoft Showcase Schools in the world to receive the prestigious “Biggest Impact School of The Year 2019-2020” award, among 325 schools globally

MALAYSIA, 16 DECEMBER 2020 – Sekolah Kebangsaan Taman Bukit Indah (SKTBI) located in Bandar Iskandar Puteri, Johor was recently awarded the prestigious “Biggest Impact School of The Year 2019-2020” title for Microsoft Showcase Schools. This is in recognition of the school’s efforts towards digitalizing education and the tremendous impact it has had on the surrounding community.

SKTBI is one of the three schools globally and the only school in Asia to receive the award, out of 325 education institutions from 58 countries around the world who are part of the Microsoft Showcase Schools programme. Other award recipients include Treorchy Comprehensive School in the United Kingdom and Gray Middle School – Tacoma Public Schools in the United States.

Congratulating SKTBI on the award is Puan Maznah binti Abu Bakar, Director of Educational Resource and Technology Division, Ministry of Education, “On behalf of the Malaysian education community, we would like to applaud and commend SKTBI on their victory. Their dedication to not only adopt technology, but to also train surrounding communities with digital skills is the perfect demonstration of our digitalisation aspirations. Transformation is not only about adoption, as it also involves a shift in mindset, among teachers, students as well as parents. SKTBI has proven that it is possible, even in these challenging times, to find success and support continuous education through innovative use of technology in the classroom.”

SKTBI is also the first school in Malaysia to have all its teachers accredited as Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) experts, which is a global recognition on the teachers’ commitment in integrating technology into teaching and learning.

Encik Rasman Bin Abdul Karim, Headmaster at SKTBI said, “We are honoured to receive this award from Microsoft. Our teachers have been actively exploring the use of technology in education before COVID-19. This foresight allowed us to transition to remote learning faster than we would have otherwise it also provided us ample time to prepare our teachers, as well as the parents of our students – who play an equally vital role in enabling digital education. We hope our transformation journey will serve as a motivator for other schools around Malaysia to continue leveraging technology to enhance our education system as we head into the digital future.”

SKTBI’s hard work is reflected in improved learning outcomes for their students and an increased focus on future-ready skills. Additionally, their dedication to education transformation has enabled them to help other teachers and schools in Malaysia to better manage the transition to remote and hybrid learning scenarios during the current COVID-19 crisis. Their expertise in leveraging technology in education, also allowed for co-curricular activities to continue, even during a nationwide lockdown.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, SKTBI started organising digital sessions after school on weekends, designed for parents to gain exposure on the platform being used and the skills they need to know to enhance their children’s digital learning experience. Additionally, teachers from SKTBI have also conducted training sessions to help upskill other teachers to embrace remote teaching.

“As we conduct online classes throughout the MCO, we noticed that other teachers have also begun to realize the need to pick up remote learning and digital teaching skills. Through our collaboration with Digital Classroom, we conducted a series of webinars to teach educators valuable digital skills, simply by watching our streams hosted online, for absolutely no cost. The response from educators have been largely positive, as they begin to discover new ways of teaching, collaborating, and leveraging these new skills to enhance their virtual classroom experience,” said Mohd Fadzli Bin Ishak, a teacher at SKTBI.

The school has since conducted dozens of webinars, including an international sharing session organised by the South Korean Ministry of Education, whereby SKTBI was given the opportunity to share their best practices with over 60 schools from the Philippines and Indonesia.

Heading into 2021, SKTBI plans to further share their knowledge and expertise with 45 schools in Iskandar Puteri. They aim to help train more than 90 teachers and 900 students, turning them into a nucleus within the school to further spread their knowledge and encourage digital adoption within the education community.

“It is heartwarming to see our nation’s educators finding and creating success through technology”, said K. Raman, Managing Director, Microsoft Malaysia. “SKTBI’s collaborative approach towards digitalisation and their dedication to upskilling every person in their community with the skills needed to allow learning to continue even through a pandemic, is worthy of recognition and praise. We will continue to work with SKTBI and the Malaysian education community at large, as we head into the new year. We would also like to invite more schools to reach out to us and be part of our Microsoft Showcase Schools programme, so we can continue to support them on our shared path towards the future of education.”

The Microsoft Showcase Schools is a programme by Microsoft which supports a global network of schools to implement school-wide transformation to drive a culture of learning, innovation, and continuous improvement. Participating schools leverage the Microsoft Education Transformation Framework, and receive support from Microsoft and partners in terms of digital transformation guidance as well as access to resources and latest research. This includes thoughtfully integrating a variety of Microsoft solutions such as Windows, Office 365, OneNote, Skype and more to enable learning anywhere, anytime for their students.

SKTBI, with close to 700 students as well as 50 teachers and staff in 2020, is one out of five Microsoft Showcase Schools in Malaysia. Other schools in Malaysia that have joined this programme, include SK Taman Senangan in Penang, SMK Kubang Kerian in Kelantan, SMK Kuala Perlis in Perlis and SK Bandar Hilir in Melaka.

To learn more about Microsoft’s education programmes and initiatives, please visit:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-my/education

Feature image:  Students at SKTBI learning to code with Microsoft MakeCode, a free open-source platform that supports a progression path into real-world programming.

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