PETALING JAYA: A special needs teacher from Johor Baru has made it to the top 50 shortlist for the Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize 2019.
Dr Muhamad Khairul Anuar Hussin of SMK Taman Universiti 2 is in the running for the US$1 million, (RM 4 million) award, which is the largest prize of its kind.
He was selected from over 10,000 nominations and applications from 179 countries around the world.
Muhamad Khairul is a teacher of students with special educational needs who realised he needed more than specialist equipment.
His students needed to prepare for the real world. He devised a model of Inclusive Education to achieve this which prioritises social inclusion and co-teaching with mainstream students as the most effective way to equip them for work and independence.
They learn communication, speech and language, self-confidence and independence. A number have gone on to further education vocational training, achieving qualifications in culinary skills, building and construction, and plumbing, and so created lives for themselves that might otherwise have been unimaginable.
The success of his Inclusive Education model has been recognised by the Malaysian Ministry of Education, which has used it as the basis for its special educational needs teaching policy and guidance.
