JOHOR BAHRU, 20 December 2017 – Prof Dr Khairiyah was invited to participate in a study visit to Kyoto on Problem-Based Learning (PBL) for Low Carbon Society (LCS) Education for secondary school students in the Iskandar Region project from 9th December 50 15th december 2017.

The program is funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in collaboration with the Kyoto Environment Activities Association (KEAA) and the Kyoto City.

Thirty teachers from six schools were trained at the UTM Centre for Engineering Education (CEE) and mentored to implement PBL for educating Form two students on LCS in 2017.

The visit is a part of the prizes of the PBL-LCS final competition as the finale of the implementation of PBL-LCS in 2017.

Four students and two teachers from Sekolah Menengah Johor Jaya 2, the winners of the LCS final competition, Hj Amiruddin Abdul Manaf from the Johor State Education Department (JPNJ) and Dr Ihsan Ismail from the Ministry of Education were also part of the Malaysian delegate.

The five day study visit comprised of participating in the Kyoto+20 conference in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Kyoto Protocol, meeting with the Kyoto City Mayor, presentations and discussions at two middle and high schools At Notre Dame high school in Kyoto after  students and Dr Khairiyah’s presentation to exchange information on PBL implementations, presentation on PBL by Prof Khairiyah and presentations by students from Malaysia and the Japanese schools.

The teachers and school principle, as well as officers from KEAA expressed interest in the syatematic PBL model, implementation, training and collaboration.

They were also impressed with the solution and presentations from the students who won PBL-LCS competition.

This project will be continued to 2018 with another six new schools, which make a total of 12 schools in Johor to implement PBL at their schools.

This is also in line with the STEM education and 21st century learning initiatives in Malaysia.