GEORGE TOWN: The Northern Corridor Implementation Authority (NCIA) will work with Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) again to implement the second phase of the empowerNCER-Akademik programme.
This is following the success of phase one which was carried out during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Phase one was carried out in Seberang Perai Utara and Seberang Perai Tengah districts and now the programme will be expanded to 25 schools located in all districts, involving about 1,000 students.
NCIA chief executive officer Datuk Seri Jebasingam Issace John lauded the programme as it helped students with their SPM examination and their higher education placement.
"The NCIA will continue to promote more academic programmes as such in the future to address poverty issues via education in the northern region of Malaysia," he said.
Programme head Associate Professor Dr Shaik Abdul Malik Mohamed Ismail highlighted the exemplary role of USM in terms of collaborative learning principles by utilising expertise from within the campus community especially with the help of lecturers and students in the online teaching and learning via the mentor-mentee approach.
"This indeed has greatly helped to develop dynamic, balance, exam ready and resilience students," he said.
The empowerNCER-Akademik programme is one of the rakyat-centric programmes under the NCIA which focuses on improving and empowering the community in the Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER) through academic programmes.
USM via USAINS Holding Sdn Bhd and Industry and Community Network Division was entrusted by NCIA to implement the programme since January 2020.
The programme was launched to ensure underprivileged children in Penang will have access to quality education.
The educational programme has helped 300 students to pass the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination for the year 2020.
On top of that, 10 per cent of them had scored 5As and above, while schools that participated in the empowerNCER-Akademik programme have shown significant improvement in their grade average.
All 300 students have been accepted to further their studies at various higher learning institutions including at the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions.