Malaysia

Responsibility for the mentoring of the FPS Malaysia Program is
undertaken by

Mr Niranjan Casinader National Director, FPSP Australia

with the assistance of

Mr Simon Casinader Assistant Evaluation Co-ordinator, FPSP Australia

Regional Committee
Director		Lalitha Nair The Skills Mill malaysia-fps @fpsp.org.au

The 2006 training workshops conducted by Niranjan Casinader consisted of separate workshops for Corporate and Government Leaders, primary students and secondary students. He also conducted a major Parents Workshop on FPS and Creative Thinking for the NAGCM ( National Association for Gifted Children Malaysia), which was sponsored by Neslac. Niranjan and Lalitha also held a number of meetings with corporate executives and Ministry of Education officials in order to discuss ways forward for FPS Malaysia, which led to a number of promisimg strategies to be put in place over the next 18 months.

Click on the appropriate link to see photographs of the various workshops and presentations

Corporate Workshop / Parents Workshop / Primary Students / Secondary Students / Coaches and Evaluators Workshop

Niranjan meeting with Ministry of Education officials	Faridah Hanim bt Ariffin Assistant Director, Dept of Private Education, Ministry of Education Malaysia	Nadaraja Muninandy Research & Evaluation Unit Curriculum Development Centre Ministry of Education Malaysia

An Overview of the Malaysia Program

Lalitha Nair is Director of The Skills Mill, an educational centre that focuses on providing extension programs in literacy, numeracy and thinking skills. The centre has its own office in Subang Jaya and offers tuition, and after school activities to primary and secondary students of all ages.

Lalitha has long had an interest in education, attending a number of regional and international conferences to develop her expertise and the programs offered by the Skills Mill. It was her involvement in this area that led her to Suzanne Strangward (then the National Director of Future Problem Solving Program Australia).In 1998 Suzanne Strangward visited Malaysia as a guest of NAGCM to train Malaysians to become coaches and evaluators. Since then teams from Malaysia have competed in the Future Problem Solving Program in Australia, developing expertise in all forms of the Program, including team booklet solving, scenario writing and community problem solving.

In 2001, the progress of the Malaysia program was such that, with the support of FPSP Australia, Lalitha and a middle booklet team was invited to compete at the International Future Problem Solving Conference, the first Southeast Asian team to do so. In 2002, a community problem solving team was also invited, but was unable to attend due to the global security situation existing at the time. However, a Middle Division booklet team did attend the Australian Final in October 2003, followed by a junior team in 2004, since 2001 at least one Malaysia team has been successful to attend the Australian Finals. In 2006, a middle team was invited to attend the International Conference in Colorado, USA.

Since 2001, when Niranjan Casinader became National Director of FPSP Australia, the long term plans to develop Future Problem Solving in Malaysia have taken on a renewed focus. In that year, the International body officially accepted the proposal that the Skills Mill be granted the official authority to develop Future Problem Solving in Malaysia as a region under the mentor of FPSP Australia. Major training visits by Niranjan in 2002 and 2003, 2004 and 2006 saw a number of new coaches and students being trained as the first stage in a 5-year plan that is intended to see Malaysia emerge as a full affiliate of the FPSP International on its own right.

From 2006, The Skills Mill and FPSP Australia are continuing to focus their efforts to attract new schools and groups to the program, particularly with local Malaysian corporate support to give FPS Malaysia the resources to develop FPS around the country in the long term .The 2006 training visit was aimed at developing expertise in evaluation, student/coach training as well as developing awareness of the program in the wider educational community.

Keep an eye on the Training page of this website to for the official registration fliers to be released.

How to Register in the Future Problem Solving Program, Australia for 2008

The Registration Handbook for the 2008 Australian Program applies in nearly respects to the Malaysian Program, which follows the same submission dates as the Australian timetable. Click here to download this handbook in pdf forma.. This Handbook should be read carefully before proceeding further.

Costs and submission deadlines for 2007 can found on the How to Register page of ths website.

However, please note that all Malaysian schools that wish to register teams in the 2008 FPS Program must contact Lalitha Nair as all administration is conducted through her.

Submission and Evaluation Schedule for Malaysian teams

Schools in Malaysia are part of the Australian FPS Program, which runs from late January to December each year. Malaysian schools that follow the US academic year are asked to contact Lalitha Nasir for more information.

Special Assistance for Malaysian teams

International FPSP Liason: Overseas coaches will have access to a person who will be responsible for assisting schools with any question of difficulty related to the submission, evaluation and return of booklets, including coaching advice. Simon Casinader, as Assistant Evaluation Co-ordinator , has responsibility for liason with all Australia's mentored regions, including Malaysia, in relation to the daily operation of the FPS Program. He can be contacted on international@fpsp.org.au. Since this role is also being undertaken after hours, please allow 24-48 hours for a response, although every effort will be made to deal immediately with urgent concerns.