Empowering Orang Asli Students Through Technology, STEM and Leadership

CHUMBAKA

December 8, 2025
5-7 Min Read

Across a remote Orang Asli community in Pahang, students are discovering how technology and STEM can change their future.

“It takes a village to raise a child.”

Key Takeaways:

A three-day Hackathon programme introduced Orang Asli students to STEM, coding, digital-making, and leadership skills.
Students learned Scratch, Arduino, AI, and machine learning, then built tech-enabled arcade games to showcase their culture.
The programme reached a total of 26 Orang Asli students from both SMK Tembangau and SK Iskandar — a nearby primary school.
This is the largest cohorts since the initiative began 4 years ago.
Strong support from teachers in both schools and the village chief (Tok Batin) has turned this outreach from a small pilot into an eagerly anticipated annual event.

A Three-Day “Learn, Build, Share” Journey

This year’s outreach to Orang Asli students stands out as one of our most inspiring education efforts to date. Building on a long-running initiative to support underserved communities, our team designed a three-day Hackathon to equip Orang Asli students with both technical skills and essential soft skills.

The goal was simple: empower young learners with the tools to lead, create, and share.

The programme followed our signature “Learn, Build, Share” approach.

Day One: Learn

Students explored a wide range of digital-making and design-thinking topics, including:

Scratch
Arduino
Artificial intelligence (AI) and
Machine learning (ML)

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This first day gave them a basic foundation in coding, creativity, and problem-solving, especially for those who were new to technology.

Day Two: Build

On the second day, students worked in teams to turn their new knowledge into action.

They designed and coded a tech-enabled arcade game, applying what they had learned about block-based coding, electronics and user experience.

The most meaningful challenge we gave them was this: “Build an arcade game that shares YOUR culture.” For these students, that meant bringing Budaya Semelai to life on screen, so that Orang Asli students of Semelai descent could proudly share their stories and traditions with audiences from outside their school.

Day Three: Share

The experience culminated in a showcase session where every team presented their creation.

Students took turns explaining how their games worked, what challenges they faced and how they solved them. This carefully planned structure ensured that students not only acquired technical skills, but also developed their:

Collaboration, among friends
Leadership
Presentation and storytelling skills

During the process, the students took the initiative to prepare English scripts. They wanted to make sure the audience could see their effort in English learning at school!

Building Connections With Orang Asli Schools

The roots of this project trace back to a personal connection. One of our ex-interns introduced us to their uncle, a teacher at an Orang Asli school.

What began as a small initiative has now been running for the last four years and is still steadily growing.

A notable milestone this year was that, for the first time, the Orang Asli schools reached out and invited us to lead the programme. Previously, we were the ones initiating it. This time, the primary school, SK Iskandar, hosted the Hackathon. It was a clear sign of genuine trust and interest that we have hoped for and carefully built over the years.

This year, we were fortunate to have 20 Orang Asli students from SMK Tembangau and 6 students from SK Iskandar to join us for this programme.

This marked one of our largest cohorts yet!

Learning Amid Real-World Challenges

Did you know that some of these students actually travel to school by boat? It is the quickest route from their village to the school.

From this, you can imagine that teaching technology in remote villages can be challenging, especially with:

Low English proficiency
Limited exposure to computers and STEM tools

To bridge these gaps, the lessons were taught using a mixture of Malay and English, supported by plenty of visual aids from our learning platform (LMS). School-provided laptops and Wi-Fi allowed students to engage with coding and digital-making despite connectivity constraints.

We were deeply impressed by the students and their determination. Many quickly adapted to block-based coding and Arduino, even if it was completely new to them.

One of our mentors, Yuen, captured the spirit of the event perfectly: “It takes a village to raise a child.”

Her words reflect not only the community’s support, but also the teamwork the students showed as they helped one another troubleshoot, experiment and build their games.

💡Do you know?

Orang Semelai are one of the nineteen Orang Asli people groups of Peninsular Malaysia. They are part of the Proto-Malay subgroup.
Semelai is literally translated, “man of the land”.
Archaeological evidence has shown that the Semelai folk have been natives of the land for more than 600 years. They live in the states of Negeri Sembilan, Pahang, Selangor, Malacca, and Johor. Most of their villages sit along the wetlands surrounding Lake Bera in Southwest Pahang. Many new settlements have been opened along nearby riverbanks.

Lasting Impact and Gratitude

The programme concluded this year with heartfelt thanks from us to:

School principals, Pn. Norazlin (ex-Pengetua SMK Tembangau) and En. Muhammad Shafie (Guru Besar SK Iskandar)
Teachers, especially Cikgu Saubirin who have been putting weights behind this programme, ensuring it was run smoothly
The village chief (Tok Batin) and the wider Orang Semelai community

The annual primary and secondary student collaboration has become a vital event for the Orang Semelai community.

What started as a small effort to simply expose Orang Asli students to coding skills has blossomed into a strong initiative that now strengthens bonds and drives collaboration between both the primary and secondary schools.

Their enthusiasm confirms that opportunity, coupled with a supportive community, transforms lives.