Kumaresan a/l Muniandy
SM Pendidikan Khas Vokasional Merbok, Kedah
Cikgu Kumaresan is one of the Top 5 Finalists of the Malaysia Teacher Prize. He is a special education teacher from SM Pendidikan Khas Vokasional Merbok, Kedah. A mother had bemoaned about her worry regarding the unemployment of her child due to him being an OKU. This concern of his student’s parents has inspired Cikgu Kumaresan to start a career transition learning project that could help special kids have job opportunities or become entrepreneurs in the real world. One of his earliest projects included the quail farming project in 2012 at PPKI SMK Pengkalan Aur. This project allowed the students to have their chance and experience entrepreneurship and the opportunities to be independent. This project won many awards, including Anugerah Inovasi Terbaik Negeri Perak, Anugerah Pingat Emas and Anugerah Inovasi Kebangsaan. In addition to the success, Cikgu Kumaresan’s project was also presented at ICSAR 7TH International Special Education Conference in Indonesia. Other than that, Hello School to Work Project and Kedai Dobi OKU School Enterprise Project has been going on at Cikgu Kumaresan’s school since 2017. As a result, 20 students involved in this project managed to secure themselves a place in the industrial sector according to their field of expertise. These two projects won the Senia World Changer Award, and Cikgu Kumaresan also won the ‘Anugerah Ikon Guru Pendidikan Khas’ and ‘ Anugerah Guru Cemerlang Kebangsaan, Negeri dan Daerah’. Cikgu Kumeresan is still running multiple projects that could help students with special needs in polishing their skills to fulfil their employers’ needs and secure stable employment opportunities after they finish their studies.