Mrs. K. A. Razhiyah is currently a Special Education Specialist Teacher at Panji Secondary School, Kota Bharu, Kelantan. She is a“Teacher with a lion heart”. She nurtures special needs students with love and care. She trains them life skills so that they will be able to function in the society and be less dependent.

Mrs. K.A. Razhiyah started out teaching students with hearing impairs and later on improved herself with more trainings, so that she can help students with other types of learning disabilities such as down syndrome and blinds. She said that special need students are beautiful. She loves to help them to be able to function. She teaches them discipline, good hygiene and social interaction/skills.

Mrs. K.A. Razhiyah brought in many new teaching ideas and classes to her special education students. Among her interesting initiatives are:

1) the Make-up class and 2) the Spa class. She invited Make-up artist and professional Spa therapist to come to school to teach her special need students. She makes the students feel good and confident. Students now started provided SPA services for school guest and tourists.

She also provides rewards for students’ effort after their hard work with the classes/activities. She uses her own money to give students a nice trip with nice clothes and new suitcases. She said helping special need students do well, makes she feel young.

She educates parents on how to treat and help their children, so that the children/students can function well with others.

She said the challenges in dealing with students with disabilities are with two matters. They are either neglected or over protected. She stressed that it is very important to help parents understand how to help their children be able to function in the society independently.

This is because if one day the parents are gone, the children should be able to cope and help themselves according to their individual capacities. She has inspired so many people both at the national level and international level. She has done many things for her students yet do not want to be mentioned.

She is a very energetic teacher. Throughout her career, she has done so many things to promote students with disabilities. Amidst her busy schedule at school, she is also a resource person, a trainer, a special education curriculum writer, an actress, a script writer, a theater director, and a therapist of the former King of Kelantan.

She has made significant contributions to the Learning Disabilities Teaching and Learning in Malaysia through the development of curriculum in kindergarten, primary, secondary and vocational schools. She has also been selected as one of the 50 candidates for the “Global Teacher Award” in 2018.