By NATASHA VENNER-PACK and IAN YEE

WHEN Nik Azri arrived for his first class as a teacher at SK Terusan Tengah in Sabah, he found a completely empty classroom. There were no tables, chairs or teaching aids. There weren’t even any students.

It was his first posting after graduating from the teachers’ academy, and it was a tough one – the remedial class of a school located on the remote island of Pulau Bum-Bum, close to the easternmost point of Malaysia. His students were all classified as slow learners, but sadly, the school did not have the expertise or resources to help them.

Nik, 25, didn’t have any resources either, but inspired by his students’ eagerness to learn despite their limitations, he tried something a little different – crowdfunding for education.

That’s where the 100% Project came in. Founded by former Teach For Malaysia (TFM) employee Amelia Tan, Andrew Yong and TFM Fellow Karthik Karunanithy, the online platform allows teachers to propose classroom projects which the public can then support through donations.

“We have a lot of teachers in Malaysia like Nik who are very passionate and have brilliant ideas, but they just don’t have the resources,” said Tan, 30. “The Government does its best, but the system is so large, it’s very difficult to get funding for everyone.

“So the only way forward is for society to get involved, to empower and support our teachers.”

Using the 100% Project’s online platform (100percentproject.org), Nik was able to raise close to RM8,500 for his project, Akademi IQ, a cool new programme to inspire students to improve their basic learning skills. And all it took was 29 individual donations from the public.

Nik (right) and the students of ‘Akademi IQ’ with their new uniforms and badges.

But getting the funding was just the beginning for Nik. He camped at the school for eight days just to refurbish the classroom. He did research on colour schemes and mural designs that would facilitate learning. He coordinated the transport of the new furniture to the school. All that before Akademi IQ itself was launched.

“I feel like SK Terusan Tengah is now lit up all because of your generosity,” wrote Nik in a thank-you note on the 100% Project website. “My remedial classroom has always been gloomy and sombre. But now, it has received a complete makeover into Akademi IQ. I am still overwhelmed.

“We worked as hard as we could to set up the class. In fact, I did not return to Semenanjung for Hari Raya because I wanted to complete the set-up well and as soon as possible for my students and for you, my donors.”

READ MORE: 5 successful projects by the 100% Project

Since its launch late last year, 100% Project has helped support many teachers like Nik. They’ve funded 30 classroom projects, raising over RM380,000 through crowdfunding. And the best part is that they’re only just getting started.

Negative thoughts

Crowdfunding educational projects allows 100% Project to affect change in individual classrooms. The stories from the teachers, however, could help improve education on a broader level.

“Malaysians always have such a negative perception about teachers,” said Tan. “We want to help elevate the profession by showing people what our teachers are really like.”

Stories like these helped inspire the project in the first place. When they were with TFM, Tan, Yong and Karthik would meet teachers from across the country who had been funding their own classroom projects.

“Many of them spend their own money on things like mahjong paper and marker pens, just to make the class more interactive. But there were also quite a few who bought LCD projectors for their classes,” said Jo Ann Lee-Raj, 26, 100% Project’s head of programme and impact delivery. She is also a TFM fellow who taught in a rural school in Kedah for two years after completing her degree in the United States.

(L-R) Associate in the programme team Shobana Nair, head of programme and impact delivery Jo Ann Lee-Raj, and cofounders Amelia Tan, Andrew Yong, and Karthik Karunanithy are some of the youths behind the 100% Project. – CHRIS LIM

“People think teachers have it easy, because they only work half-days. But they do so many other things outside the classroom which people don’t know about. They attend meetings, oversee clubs and societies, and do a lot of paperwork for all their activities.”

Tan recalls another story of a teacher in Penang who paid RM700 to rent a bus so her students could go for a science competition in Kuala Lumpur.

Teacher Nigel Sim, 27, from SMJK Yoke Kwan in Sekinchan, Selangor had a similar goal – to bring his students to the Kuala Lumpur Engineering and Science Fair, so they could take part in the Young Innovate competition.

Sim had been running STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Technology) workshops as an after-school activity, and he wanted his students to have the chance to enter their projects in the competition.

Through 100% Project, he was able to raise the RM2,500 needed to cover transport, meals and team T-shirts. And it’s a good thing the funding came through, because one of their projects placed third at the competition!

Sim (left) and his students from SJKC Sekinchan never expected to place third at the Young Innovate 2015 competition. – 100% Project

The team behind 100% Project believes if it can create more “constructive conversations” about education in Malaysia based on stories like these, the entire system will benefit.
Tan said Malaysians tend to complain a lot about the teachers and the education system without really knowing what their challenges are.

While TFM fellows often get a lot of positive feedback for their work, and rightly so, Tan has noticed that other non-TFM teachers don’t often get the same treatment.

“TFM fellows get such amazing feedback to their stories on social media, but there are teachers who have been doing the same for decades!” said Tan. “These are everyday heroes, who don’t even know how inspiring their stories really are. It’s up to us to help them keep that fire burning.”

Transparency and sustainability

Malaysians are actually very generous when it comes to contributing to education, according to Tan (she handled fund-raising during her time with TFM) – they just don’t know where and how to do it.

With 100% Project, however, the public now has the chance to contribute directly to classrooms that need help, and see tangible results.

Once a project receives the funding it needs, the contributors receive thank-you notes, photos of the project or personalised gifts from the students, depending on the amount donated. Teachers are also asked to provide updates on the website, showing how the donations are being used.

Transparency on how the donations are handled is a huge priority to the team, which is why they have a “transparency document” on their website. The spreadsheet contains details of all the projects, including bank receipts on all the disbursed funds, which are transferred only to parent-teacher association bank accounts – never the teachers’ private accounts.

The 100% Project website allows you to pick from a variety of projects, as well as see the amount needed and the progress of the crowdfunding.

It’s an incredibly well-designed project, which is probably why it was selected by the Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC) for an accelerator programme for social enterprises.

But one important thing for social enterprises is financial sustainability. The 100% Project achieves that by allowing donors to top up a small amount to contribute to the team’s operating expenses.

“We also partner with companies, especially SMEs, who want to do CSR projects with schools. A lot of them have the money, but they don’t know how to channel it in the most effective way, so we help them coordinate their CSR projects, and we charge them a fee,” said Tan.

The response from both the corporate sector and the public has been fantastic. According to Tan, most of the teachers were pleasantly surprised by the level of support they received, and how inspired people were by their projects.

“It’s always great seeing how grateful the teachers are. That’s one of the best parts of doing what we do,” said Tan.

“But we can support a lot more. A lot of people would say ‘isn’t it the Government’s job?’, but education is a collective responsibility, not just the Government’s. We all have a role to play.”