TARA Foundation today offers academic tuition and guidance at more than 30 centres in Malaysia, catering to around 2,400 B40 students in need of a good foundation towards secondary and tertiary education. The unique aspect is that the Tara centres are set up within or close to PPR (People’s Housing Programme) flats and other areas populated by lower income families. This allows the centres to be easily accessible to the students who live there.

This unique approach is the brainchild of Datuk Pardip Kumar Kukreja, chairman and founder of Tara. The initiative came about due to his own experience of having to give up his dream of pursuing tertiary education, while living in the PPR flats at Bandar Baru Sentul, due to the poor state of his family finances.

After he started and successfully developed his own travel business and attended weekend classes to complete his Master in Business Administration, Pardip decided to extend a hand to the B40 community by setting up outreach activities at the Tara centres.

Health Lane Family Pharmacy Sdn Bhd joined forces with Tara Foundation in this educational journey on Feb 2 last year. To facilitate fundraising efforts, each Health Lane Family Pharmacy prominently displays a donation box at the cashier counter.

The company recently handed over RM33,291 collected from the donation boxes to support the running of the centres.

“We trust that education is one of the most important elements to improve human life,” said Yuen Lai Yan, Health Lane’s head of marketing at the handover ceremony. “By contributing more to build education, we can enhance the civilisation mindset of the population.”

Pardip explained that the idea is to catch the children at a young age and prevent them from becoming dropouts as many cannot cope with their studies due to poor parental support. “Many of the parents earn a bare minimum, with no qualifications as they lacked the opportunities in education. If we can help their children with their studies, the children feel empowered to aim for a better life,” he said.

He also shared the many success stories, such as of 16 Tara Foundation students who progressed to university and were assisted financially with PTPN (National Higher Education Fund) loans and other forms of financial assistance.

“As graduates they provide hope for the community to stop the poverty cycle and have a better life.

“Not only do we provide tuition but we also provide lunch to more than 500 students who cannot afford it and in this way they will attend school on a regular basis, instead of dropping out early and looking for menial jobs, such as cleaning, to afford meals,” he added.

According to Pardip, the system of teaching at the Tara centres uses a unique Academic Excellence Programme (AEP), where a lesson plan is prepared, with an annual planner, notes and assessments.

“Currently each centre manager takes charge and ensures the centre is run smoothly. Meetings are held regularly between parents and the teachers at the centre to discuss challenges faced by the parents and the ways to overcome them,” he said.

Among the biggest challenges the centres face is impressing upon parents on the needs of their children and why education provides a pathway for them to achieve success.

“We need to have face-to-face meetings with parents on a regular basis so that their children have a conducive atmosphere to study at home,” said Suria Ram Santiram who has been a centre manager for a year. “Many students also come to the centre to study, since it is open even on weekends and we have air-conditioning so they feel comfortable.”

“The uniqueness of the Tara centres is that the classes are conducted free, and we also have other sessions such as for yoga, sports, arts, self-defence, character building and health screenings.”