Recipient of Hyacinth Gaudart English Language Teacher Award a strong advocate for reading
Marcus holds his Hyacinth Gaudart English Language Teacher award certificate.
KUCHING: A strong advocate for reading, renowned for his school project helping dyslexic students, English language teaching extraordinaire Marcus Raja is this year’s recipient of the coveted Hyacinth Gaudart English Language Teacher Award.
This award, presented to an English language teacher who has served the profession in an outstanding manner, caps the highly distinguished career of the 58-year-old teaching veteran from Bario.
Throughout his 34 years experience in education, Marcus has conducted numerous classroom researches to improve English language proficiency of students in particular those from the rural areas. He was a teacher, a principal of three schools, a teachers’ trainer and many more, but his work to help dyslexic students to read was deemed the most rewarding.
“Teaching is something I’m very passionate about. I’m a strong advocate for reading. Every school that I went to, I place reading as a priority as only through reading can students go further… to a higher level.
“It is very important to get students to read and speak more. When they are able to read, they can actually do more. As for teachers, there’s only so much that we can do to provide for our students,” Marcus told reporters when met after receiving his award.
He received the award recently at the 23rd Malaysia English Language Teaching Association (Melta) and 12th Asia TEFL (Teaching English as Foreign Language) International Conference 2014 held at the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) here.
Marcus noted that students needed lots of exposure in the English language to improve their proficiency. This is adamant especially in the rural setting. In his last stint as principal, he dedicated the first period every Tuesday for reading.
He began his teaching career at SMK Lutong, Miri in 1980. Later, he became principal ofSMK Long Lama, SMK Bakong and SMK Lopeng Tengah, all in Miri division. Currently (appointed in March this year), he is a School Improvement Partner for the Miri District Education Department.
The position is more of a consultation role tasked to coach school administrators and mentor both primary and secondary school heads.
He was an English language officer for the state Education Department from Nov 1982 to Feb 1984. This was followed with a 10-year stint as trainer – preparing teachers in the English language subject for primary schools, which lasted until Feb 1994.
Marcus then began his career as a principal followed by a break of six years, taking up administrative position at the divisional education office and as a school inspector before returning to teaching as a school principal.
As principal, Marcus always carried out his own classroom research apart from guiding his English teachers. He has used the Melta conference as a platform to share his classroom research.
In 2006, he was the recipient of the Basil Wijasuriya Best Malaysian Teacher Presenters award during the annual conference. One of his achievements is the coveted Chief Minister Exemplary Principal Award in 2009.
Marcus, who possesses a Masters in Education in Language and Management from the University of Bristol, has dedicated much of his career helping dyslexic students particularly those who can’t read when they entered Form 1.
In the last Asia TEFL (Teaching English as Foreign Language) conference, he presented a paper on a special project he established in his school to help dyslexic students. The project saw him engaging all his teachers to take turns educating students to read everyday so that they could pick up the reading habit. The projects he founded remain till today.
“Through constant reading, we found that they improved in their reading of English faster than their mastering of the Bahasa Malaysia. Personally, this project is one of those things that I am very proud of – helping dyslexic students who for the first six years in their primary school education were unable to read.
“They were not reading but giving them something so that they can start to read, to me, that is one of the best gifts that teachers can give to such children.”
As an educator he dabbled in short-story writing. He has a few winning entries in the short-story writing competition organised by the state Education Department.
On his advice to young English teachers, Marcus said that first and foremost, they must love children. They must know why they are there (teaching and placement), especially in the rural settings.
He said students really needed teachers whom he deemed key to children’s success. Above all, teachers must be passionate in what they are doing.