INVISIBLE | Session 10 | Malaysia | Dr Putri Afzan Maria Binti Zulkifli, KinderKaizen & Sri Aria School

A dedicated and passionate advocator of Early Childhood Education (ECE), play pedagogy focusing on emotional development who started her journey in the education industry upon returning from her 7 years of studies in the United Kingdom, in 2012. She first designed and produced an interactive courseware for children during her degree years in Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP). This led her to pursue MA Development in Global Societies in Leeds Beckett University and continued her doctorate journey in Cognitive Science, Sussex University.

Seeing too much focused on academic learning as young as 4, she decided to resign as a lecturer, left the academia to venture into the industry to understand the issues in ECE. Challenged by her husband after series of talks, to prove what was said on the importance of ECE, she designed her own Play Based Learning Kindergarten Model called KinderKaizen in 2014. A model that fits the culture, and evidence based research, she was called to run one, to walk the talk. Advocating through KinderKaizen, she managed to convince around 40 interested followers to run the centres in 40 different locations within 3 years. This was indeed a success.

The journey continues with the needs of a school. Her children are growing and again, she struggles with fitting in the existing education system. She tried alternative schoolings and homeschooled for a while, but she was consistently thinking and trying to find a solution. Sri Aria, a Self-Directed Education school came to mind as the most acceptable system that may fit into the objective of why she thinks the country needs one. Started one in 2018, Sri Aria has 4 campuses today, with a total of 140 students and growing. Adding to this, she too created a childcare centre, KinderBebe to champion the campaign of ‘Start Right’ for 0-4s. This is following the needs of supporting parents to make it right from the start.

A job creator she is from the very beginning, to date, she has created PlayLeaders, PlayCarers, PlayWorkers, Mediators, Play Companions and Learning Facilitators. She designed a Play Conference to educate the nation. She initiated the StoryMaker Apprentices, to train undergraduates and inspire them by being her apprentices. She designed books, train apprentices to produce children’s books and publish them. She appears on televisions, radios, newspapers and magazines to advocate and now slowly shifting towards becoming a Child-Parent Mediator to support emotional development.

She definitely has so much on her plate, and she has now her own blueprint of a whole school system, a revolution in education. Understanding the busy schedule, she is now creating champions to lead her work.