Faculty of Social Science, Arts andHumanities
Co-sponsored byCapacity Building Workshop on School
Social Work
16th January 2020
School Social Worker (SSW)
School Social Worker (SSW) is a trained
liaison professional who connects every
individual in a classroom, school, districts,
family and community. The focus is toimprove students’ emotional, behaviouraland social skills in short 'The Life Skills' fromtheir nascent school years. SSW are full time'in action and ready' experts walking handin-hand with students leaving no one isolate.
One of their main goal is assessing students’capabilities to handle issues arising fromsociety, home and school and make themready for the future. The approach is
rigorous, inclusive and systematic that does
not wait to nip the perilous psychoemotional disturbances in their budding lifeof student hood. The school benefits fromtheir coordination of community services
they bring into students and modify harmful
traditional institutional practices that may
not be relevant for millennial students.
Why School Social Workers for Malaysia?
Malaysia wants balance between growthand people’s needs. Need of the millennialstudents have changed and teachingmillennials are not easy.
Traditional
teaching methods are becoming outdated intoday's schools, partly because teachers are
not able to tackle students’ personal andsocial problems. School-community-pupil
relations educational model is the buzz word
today that caters to more student canteredteaching approaches that includes learningwith the changing demands of the society.
The role of school social work is oft cited inmany progressive nations for sustainable
developments and that starts from theprimary levels, the school and education
system.
Many industrialized and developed
countries have introduced school socialwork. Teachers are burdened with teachingtasks and are not trained to handle socialproblems. The introduction of school social
work in these developed countries was anadmission that there was only so muchteachers could do in addressing theproblems of school children. Even withschool counsellors, the problems have notdecreased.
Malaysia has approximately 7,776
primary schools and 2,426 secondary
schools. Based on seven universities
graduating an average of 350 social work
students per year, and assuming that all areemployed as school social workers, thecountry will still be short of providing
enough social workers. It took Hong Kongclose to 30 years before it embarked on the
one social worker to each secondary school
policy. Although Malaysia is not ready for
one social worker for each school, it can startby assigning several school social workers toschool districts. Through this approach,social workers will be able to service several
schools until each school in Malaysia is able
to employ its own social worker.

Objectives

AgendaThis workshop will provide Malaysia’s
stakeholders significant insights frominternationalsocialwork
educators/researchers who stand at theforefront of international social work
education.

9.00 a.m. to 9.20 a.m. – Registration &•
•
•

•

•

Sharing experiences of obstacles
and challenges faced
The process of achieving theestablishment of school social work
Address how does social work
educators and practitioners copewith current needs
Define the role of SSWs to engage
families and communities withschools.
Design guidelines to build school
capacity to use SSW to create safe
and supportive school environment

Breakfast
9.20 a.m. to 9.25 a.m. – Invocation andWelcome Speech – Prof. Dr. Zulkarnain Hatta
9.25 a.m. 9.30 a.m. – Opening Remarks –Dr. Annamaria Campini, President of IASSW
Dr. Amiya Bhaumik, Director-Research andPublications, Lincoln University College,Malaysia.
Panel Discussions
Moderator: Prof. Dr. In Young Han
9.40 am to 10.00 am – Talk by Prof. Tan NgohTiong
10.00 a.m. to 10.20 a.m. - Talk by Prof. Ute
Straub
10.20 a.m. to 10.40 a.m. - Talk by Dr.

International Panelists
1. Prof. Tan Ngoh Tiong, Representing
Asia
2. Prof.

Ute

Straub,Representing

Europe3. Dr. Annaline Keet, Representing
Africa4. Dr. Rita Meono Molina, Representing
Latin America – Costa Rica
5. Dr. Kathy Hogarth, Representing
Caribbean Islands/North America
6. Ms. Melissa Ngiam, Representing
Malaysia.

Annaline Keet
10.40 a.m. to 11.00 a.m. - Talk by Dr. Rita
Meono Molina
11.00 a.m. to 11.20 a.m. - Talk by Dr. Kathy
Hogarth
11:20 a.m. to 11:40 a.m. – Talk by Ms. Melissa
Ngiam,
11:40 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. – Open dialogue
with Participants/Panel discussions
12.00 p.m. to 12:20 p.m. - Concluding
Remarks

President

MASWDr.

Mohd.

Suhaimi Mohammed
12:25 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. – Lunch
Focus Group Discussion
1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. – Focus Group
Discussion (MASW, NAJCCSWE, IASSW andselects)

PatronDatuk. Dr. Abdul Ghani
CEOLincoln University College, Malaysia
ConvenorProf. Dr. Zulkarnain Ahmad Hatta
DEAN, Faculty of Social Science, Arts and Humanities, Lincoln University College, Malaysia
Advisory Board
Mrs. Amybala, MASW
Mr. Teoh Ai Huat, UUM
Dr. Mohd Haizzan, USM
Members
Dr. M.S. Bexci, LUC
Dr. Harikrishnan Andi, LUC
Dr. Yousef Mostafalou, LUC