Teach for Malaysia (TFM) has a group of young hearts and minds who have the utmost motivation as well as passion to make education sustainable. Aiming to use education to break the chain of poverty, they uphold the element of education sustainability by focusing on 3 key points which revolves around,
1. socio-economic factors (e.g. Poverty created additional education needs),
2. school system issues (e.g. Inability to address high-need students’ extra requirements), and
3. prevailing ideologies (e.g. The perpetuation of inequity by repressive notions regarding children in high-need communities).

On September 4th, TFM partnered with Makeweekend to organize a workshop that was led by a professionally trained design thinking training, Kal Joffres. In that workshop, TFM fellows shared their experiences and gave analytical insights after gathering information on the quality of education in Malaysia. The participants from different backgrounds brainstormed and exchanged ideas to round off their solutions for the prevalent problems in education.

The Social Business Model Canvas was used to help them break down the important element in the project that needs to be focused on to enhance their projects’ quality. Moreover, potential funders (Khazanah and MyHarapan) roamed around to observe and offer feedback as the partakers form their project ideas.

The most common view about education is one should acquire it for the purpose of making a difference or bringing about change. As Malcolm X once said, “education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.”