Category: CEO Messages

بِسْــــــــــــــــــمِ اﷲِالرَّحْمَنِ اارَّحِيم

Allhumma Solli A’la Muhammad wa a’la ali Muhammad kama sollaita a’la ibrahim wa a’la ali Ibrahim fil a’lamina innaka hamidun Majjid.

Assalamualaikumwarahmatullahiwabarakatuh, good morning/afternoon…Our Honorable guests Madam Qutren Nada Ahmad, CEO CIC Group of Companies, Mr Azizi Ahmad, Executive Director CIC Group of Companies…. Fellow Franchisees, representative of Abedeen Academy, dear parents, teachers, and our young leaders…

Today, I’m very happy and determined as we come together to celebrate the graduation of our young leaders from CIC Where Leaders Are Born. This year, our teachers and young leaders have demonstrated great dedication and perseverance. I’d also like to congratulate all of you for your strong support and dedication to your children’s education, which has played a key role in their success today. The teachers worked hard to ensure every child enjoyed their time in CIC while focusing on the quality of learning. Congratulations to all teachers and Young Leaders! All your hard work and dedication has not gone unnoticed. Today marks a big step toward your bright future, InsyaAllah.

Dear parents,

As you can see from the screen, apart from our ongoing campaign Childhood Is Crucial, this year’s theme will be focusing on “The Glory of Allah,” Let’s think about the word, بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم  “In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.” Solely, from this word, we can understand that Allah is the one who brings creations from nonexistence to life, who provides the means for the creations to continue life and who will forgive our sins in the Hereafter. From just this holy word, it reflects Allah’s kindness, His benevolence that is everywhere, even in difficult times. Everything in the world and the Hereafter shows how amazing Allah is.

Dear Parents,

In life, we should remember that nothing really belongs to us. Our abilities, talents, and even our successes are gifts from Allah. When we appreciate the beauty in the world, the goodness in others, and the talents in ourselves, we are essentially praising Allah.

In all moments of lives, we want our young leaders to always remember Allah in everything they do. When things are tough, they should know     لا اله الا الله (“there’s no god but Allah) When they’re worried, they shall remember ما شاء الله.”it’s what Allah wills.” When good things happen,  الحمد لله, it’s “thanks to Allah”! In times of success, الشكر لله “praise be to Allah.” When they see something amazing, سبحان الله “Allah is perfect.” When they make mistakes, استغفرالله “I seek forgiveness from Allah.” In hard times, they should remember انا لله و إنا اليه راجعون “we belong to Allah and to Him, we will return.” When they need help, توكلت على الله they should turn to Allah, and always remember that all power is with Allah, the Most High, the Most Powerful,

 لا حول ولا قوة الا بالله العلى العظيم.

This core belief helps them understand that all things belong to Allah. This understanding keeps them away from being arrogant, egoistic, and selfish. Our goal at CIC is to nurture young leaders who are compassionate, selfless, and full of humility, for it is through these qualities that we can help solve many issues that afflict our world today.

Dear parents,

In today’s world, we see how egoism, selfishness, and self-interest cause suffering, just like how we can see it now, in the ongoing tragedy in Palestine. The acts of violence and harm to vulnerable people show how selfishness leads to terrible suffering. It is the same selfishness that often makes us choose what helps us and ignore what doesn’t, even if it’s the right thing to do. If we still hold onto our selfishness, we will unfortunately remain in this dark place. On the other hand, believers (Mu’mineen), grounded in their faith, will not engage in such conflicts because they understand the value of selflessness and working for the sake of Allah. They unite around a shared purpose and direction, free from the darkness of selfishness.

At CIC, we’re determined to develop our young leaders with values and beliefs that will break this cycle. Today, as we celebrate their success, we look forward to a brighter future where selflessness and the acknowledgment of Allah’s greatness are most important.  As at CIC, future leaders are born, we are sending them into the world, with hope that they will live by these principles and inspire others to do the same.

In conclusion, let’s remember that “The Glory of Allah” isn’t just a theme – it’s a way of life. Let us guide our children together, so we work toward a kinder world, InsyaAllah. Finally, let us all remember to keep our Palestinian brothers and sisters in our thoughts and prayers. Al Fatihah.

Thank you.

Narges Zeynab Azizi – Deputy CEO

بِسْــــــــــــــــــمِ اﷲِالرَّحْمَنِ اارَّحِيم

Allhumma Solli Ala Muhammad wa ala ali Muhammad kama sollaita a’la ibrahim wa a’la ali Ibrahim fil a’lamina innaka hamidun Majjid.

Assalamualaikumwarahmatullahiwabarakatuh, good morning/afternoon…Our Honorable guests, dear parents, teachers and our young leaders…

(Please allow me to sing a short phrase of a song)

 Congratulations and celebrations!

To all of our young leaders today!

Congratulations and jubilations!

To all of our young leaders today!

Congratulations Young Leaders! 

Dear parents,

I would like to first introduce myself. Some of you may have seen me but I guess most of you have not. I’m Narges Zeynab. (Video slideshow) This was me 18-20 years ago… wearing the same T-shirt that your children may be wearing when they’re in CIC.. Yes, I was once in CIC too! Yes, I was once a young leader too. I have spend half of my life in CIC.

Some of my teachers are still here dedicating their life in developing our Young Leaders. Shout out to TEACHER NAZIATI! TEACHER ZANA! TEACHER ROHAIDA! TEACHER SALISA! TEACHER ZIRA! TEACHER MARINA , TEACHER SUZI and TEACHER SOFI! (Please give them a round of applause!)

Through their dedication, Alhamdulillah, after I left CIC as a graduate, I continue to strive. I was a bright student in primary school, I strived in my elementary school, I was always at the top of my class, and recently I have also graduated with a first class honour degree in Management with Economics from Goldsmiths University of London. And I believe I’m only one of many other graduates of CIC who are striving out there, InsyaAllah. It’s thanks to them, I have a strong foundation in life. Synonym with the name of CIC, Childhood is indeed Crucial.

Dear parents,

This year, our teachers and Young Leaders have demonstrated great dedication and perseverance. The teachers worked really hard to ensure every child enjoyed their time in CIC while focusing on the quality of learning. I am proud to see our Young Leader’s overwhelming participation in many activities including CIC’s Pocket, Merdeka roadshow, educational trips and many other thematic based activities. Congratulations again to all teachers and Young Leaders! All of your hard work and dedication has not gone unnoticed, and it brings me great happiness to see you all achieve such success. I hope our young leaders today will continue their excellence in every future step of their life, InsyaAllah!

Ladies and gentlemen,

I would like to take this opportunity to address some matter that has recently been viral on the internet. That is, regarding the claim of a parent that their child was bullied by another child in CIC. Alhamdulillah, after a thorough internal investigation with all the witnesses involved, together with the police, we came to a consensus that it is not a case of bullying.

Dear parents,

CIC strictly stands against the action of bullying and CIC has clear rules against bullying. Our teachers are given training on prevention and intervention for any bullying cases that may occur at any of CIC centres. We need you to trust our teachers. I understand every parent here only wants the best for their child. We do too! We want the best for all young leaders in CIC! Our young leaders in CIC come from many backgrounds. It is during their time in CIC, they learn to develop their language, social interactions and emotional development. CIC is the place where this small community meets. Thus, it is our responsibility to make sure that every child in CIC gets the guidance they need to become great people and every action taken by us is very crucial in the life of the children.

Dear Parents,

Next year, we will remain committed to our current campaigns. We want to be known as a place that puts emphasis on ‘CIC’, that is Childhood Is Crucial. We want to be a place where children can be ‘CIC’, that is a Cheerful Innovative Classroom. Please look forward to many more exciting and innovative activities from our teachers and Young Leaders that correspond to our campaigns: Childhood Is Crucial & Cheerful Innovative Classroom. It is our promise to serve our prestigious customers with increased dedication in years to come.

Thank you so much and congratulations again for all Young Leaders who have graduated with CIC Where Leaders Are Born

Today’s children will be the citizens of tomorrow. They are tomorrow’s parents. If they have received good education from the right hands, they in turn can carry forward this practice to their children.

If we have the will, we can develop the society for the future. If we neglect them, they can be the cause of the ruination of the society.

I discovered CIC is the perfect business for me. What about you?

Qutren Nada Ahmad

BismillahiArrahmanArRahim

Alhamdulillah we are born as Moslem. Our children are born in our hands, Moslem families, and I know that CIC’s parents are selected parents, you are outstanding Moslems and are advanced of other parents in Malaysia generally. I am proud of you and I am very grateful to have families like you supporting CIC’s mission and vision to come true.

However I like to advise myself and you too as CIC’s families, to help ourselves and our families to reach to the level of Mokmeen because being Moslem is not enough for we will be regretful in the hereafter.

There are more criterias to be a Mokmeen. I cannot discuss in details about those criterias, and for us to understand about it, needs time and want, but as a brief, it means about real belief.

Ashabul Kahfi For Example, they are the Mokmineen mentioned in the Quran. How many of us will possess such criteria of Ashabul Kahfiwhenever we encounter the test from Allah? If we do not have real belief, we cannot reach the level of these people of Ashabul Kahfi.

As far as I know, Ashabul Kahfi are not the Prophets but just seven men who had the belief in Tawheed while their society did not.

Many more messages in Surah Al Kahfi that we must learn, like the stories of Khidr and Zul Qarnain. We are told that Surah Al Kahfi has priviledges. But how many of us really understand about the messages in it?

My point is to emphasize that we parents have to help ourselves and families to reach to the Level Of Mokmineen before death comes to us and to reach that, the path is not easy. How we have to struggle for physical attainment, the Struggle For Our Iman is even more difficult.

Remember, Allah Will Not Only Test the previous generations like Ashabul Kahfi but Allah Will Test Us also. He will test our belief the same he test the past generation so that in the Hereafter we will stand in front of Him with equal chance!

Therefore, we have to continue to seek knowledge, what we had learnt in schools, universities, mosques are not enough to be a Mokmeen. Seek Knowledge, Ikhlas and being Humble, only then, we are on our way to become Mokmeen. Being ikhlas and humble is essential because wal iya zubillah we do not want to be like Iblis who is proud of himself and thinks that he is better than Adam and because of that pride, he is kufur, did not obey Allah to prostrate before Adam.

People say, “Some Love Lasts A Lifetime, True Love Lasts Forever”. Let us give to our families the gift that is not only lasts a lifetime but lasts forever, give the gift of Iman and we can leave the rest to Allah!

At CIC, we tried to do so many things to give the Gifts That Last Forever for our children. Our team from the HQ to the centres, all hands in hands had given a lot of efforts to make our mission and vision successful. I am grateful to have them around me. We spent a lot in the trainings, hoping that the crews will give back to the children. Some crews remain, some leave for whatever reason, we know that the trainings we give will last forever and will help to create better society in the future.

CIC’s Blossom Project is one of our efforts to give the Gifts That Last Forever to the children. We did Hi-Tea And the Blossom Walk, and many more activities.

Again I am grateful to have all of you, the CIC’s families who are very attentive, I hope all of you will be with us to promote and create awareness to the people to stop the child abuse and give more rights to the children including the right to have better education.

(Qutren Nada Ahmad)

Few days back did you hear about the chinese tourists (from China) were asked to leave the Japanese restaurant for having poor eating attitude?

The women throw the peeled shells onto the floor, and pile up bones and rubbish on the table. According to the report, they had also stayed at their table beyond the limit of 90 minutes for the restaurant’s buffet service despite being reminded several times by staff that it was time to leave.

However this situation seems very common in Malaysia too.

On our Hari Raya festival, where we Malaysians would have Open House and makan-makan together, how would we expect Malaysians behave?

Last few nights I was invited for Iftar at a friend’s house. He invited many other friends and neighbours that it became quite a big event. Like usual I saw people just left the tables with many plates and bowls with so much mess and food waste without the awareness to help at least by throwing their own mess into the garbage bag.

We Malaysians used to eat outside at stalls and mamak restaurants where there are helpers to clean the table, so we behave the same when we are the guests of a kenduri??

Please, even it is the restaurant we pay, we Malays must behave well and lead by example and show good table manners ourselves. Our children will copy our behaviour or do we want in future our children becoming like the China’s tourists being chased out from the restaurant for having bad eating behaviour??

When people invite us for open house or kenduri, we need to focus more on establishing relationship, but not eating like we are starving and leave the table with mess like “monyet dapat bunga”

Another issue is on the damage that we do to the world when we widely serve using the plastic plates and utensils. Today Europe is proposing a ban on single-use plastic items such as cutlery, straws and cotton buds in a bid to clean up the oceans.

But can we imagine in Malaysia, how can we ban the plastics plates while the eaters are just do not want to help to clean their own mess?

It is so sad over the tragic death of Adam Rayqal in the hands of the baby sitter, all I could think is either a negligence or an abuse case. I am not commenting on that case but my 20 years experience working with preschool teachers who are indirectly the child minders, could help us identifying good teachers from bad ones.

The key is to see how they prepare for their job. If they prepare early and do their homework well like preparing the lesson plans, teaching tools and organising their things, the teachers will find that handling children is a pleasure and the children will excel at learning. The same with baby sitters, we as parents should be able to see their preparations each day.

Preparation will make the teachers or the child minders ready for the job and they will not be stressful easily which if they become stressful, they can commit bad behaviour and can be harmful to the children.

For babysit, check also whether they have the equipments to assist them in doing their best, for example baby cots and the toys for the toddlers. The equipments also must be arranged at the right place for efficiency. The timetable and suitable activities arranged also important to keep the toddlers busy and will have an enjoyable and productive day..

If the baby sitters do not prepare, they will become tired easily, especially if they handle multiple toddlers. They will force the toddlers to sleep all the time and will act harshly towards the toddlers.

If parents send their children to taska or tadika, they must choose a professional administrator, or effective management. And make sure parents will work closely with the management and support them. Because the management will act on behalf of the parents and it is not easy to rule and manage the child minders and the teachers with many background.

In my experience, sometimes we found that the parents do not support the management and tend not to support the management in case there is an issue between the management and the child minder. Always remember that effective management will act on behalf of the parents, if they rule, it is for the benefit of the children, however not necessarily in favour of the child minders and the parents themselves.

We pray the goodness for all, with everybody playing their role at the best, nothing bad will happen insyaAllah. Bismillah, in the name of Allah, together we develop our next generation.

Alhamdulillah

Salawat

Our honorable guests,YB Datuk Mas Ermieyati binti Samsudin

(Deputy Minister of Tourism and Culture Malaysia), distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls.

Assalamualaikum wrt

Thank you for choosing to spend your time with us here especially when I, myself cannot manage to go to each area for such a celebration.

When I started CIC 20 years ago, we had a very small event but as CIC grows to 70 centres today, I am no longer able to attend too many celebrations like this due to time constraint. In addition, it is unreasonably costly to conduct multiple events especially when we want to have a great one.

Time runs very fast at CIC when early of the year, we struggled to ensure every child was happy with the new environment while focusing on the quality of learning.

While regulating and monitoring the compliance of each centre, we were untiringly engaged with a series of teachers’ training.

As for the children, with a diverse of thematic learning, they were involved in the CIC Pocket activities and few educational trips.

Soon came the mid year, we were busy with sports day and during the month of Ramadhan, we had Nuzul Quran and Khatam event and a number of Ramadhan Roadshows and Haiya Bid Doa Contest.

All activities are to give exposure and learning experiences to our young leaders. In August, we had more of spelling contests and Merdeka Roadshows.

Towards end of the year we were occupied with students performance evaluation and intensive learning to catch up on all lesson plans. And last but not least, the Convo preparation. After this week, we will have Year End Ihtifal at every center and soon after school ends, we will start with teachers training for next year’s teaching plan and soon, we will prepare to receive the new students who will start their orientation on 15th Dec, just about 5 weeks from now.

And I must tell you, next year we will have Dream Big as the theme. We have planned many interesting activities related to that. Among the activities are the KLCC Challenge, My First Robot, Engineers at Work, Architects at Work, etc etc.. Make sure your children will not miss out!

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In fact time does not run, but flies when you work at CIC! With a busy schedule, CIC is already 21 years old. Alhamdulillah not many companies are able to sustain after 5 or 10 years, let alone 20 years. We owe this success to our customers who trust us. Alhamdulillah, from the first batch of customers we had, until now, we have helped more than 40,000 families.

Maybe the number is not huge compared to other large companies in other industries. Neither are we so big that we can spend lavishly on our 20th anniversary. Some companies spend a lot even for their 10th anniversary. But CIC cannot afford to spend lavishly.

Our profit which is just enough for the operation cost with slim profit margin does not allow us to even spend on our anniversary.

However Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah, we have managed to spend on lots of trainings to our teachers.. and in 20 years, we managed to give a stable employment to many people. Quite a number of our teachers worked with us for many many years, and some of them have retired with the opportunity to open a CIC of their own under our franchise program. Alhamdulillah it shows that CIC is barakah.

Not only have we helped with the employment, more importantly CIC has helped many thousands of children to have a very wonderful childhood. They started with positive happy high performing environment and the first batch of our children have already completed their university studies with flying colors.

Even though we cannot afford to celebrate our anniversary, we are very grateful to see these children successful. We hope we can do more for them especially if we have more time.

I still remember last 2 years, on this same stage (last year we did our Convo at different place). But last 2 years we did it here. I still remember how an autistic child happened to throw a tantrum when other children were performing. The beautiful part was how the other children accepted the difference that their friend had. They were calm and continued performing even when their friend took the microphone and continued throwing a tantrum. Seeing this, I felt so proud of these CIC’s young leaders that they managed to control the situation, being more adult than some adults, accepted differences and loved without condition.

We need to learn from these children. We must learn to accept differences. In this way the world will become a beautiful place to live in.

This is what we want to have at our school. Diversity. Accept differences. Multicultural ready. This is what most of our schools even high performing schools in Malaysia lack of. Research shows that almost all of our kebangsaan or jenis kebangsaan schools do not prepare the students to be multicultural ready. While in this global village, those students who are multicultural ready will have a big advantage and will have a higher chance to become more successful.

Saidina Ali KW said, “Give the education of future to your children”. We hope our children are more advanced than us. Today they are talking about Artificial Intelligence and many new technology. Why not give the opportunity to our children to go the highest possible of future education?

We believe our school offers that future education. To continue to give more to our children and hoping we can continue the excellence of CIC to the next stage, we have established Abedeen International School. We are very proud that in its first year it received an award of Corporate Social Responsibility Leadership due to the fact that Abedeen’s facilities and standard is as high as the 1st tier International School however the fees are as affordable as the 4th tier of International School.

Hope to see your children at Abedeen just because the excellence must be continued.

Finally I want to congratulate our young leaders, parents and teachers for the success of completing this year’s lessons and making our 6 year old children CIC’s preschool graduates!

I am sure it is never easy but we have made it together! Together we develop young leaders!

Wabillahi taufiq..

Thank you again

BismillahiArrahmanArRahim

It is CIC’s honor to be part of the young leaders’ first education. It is hoped that they will continue to get the best education and grow up as successful adults, having a blessed life.

However, I am sorry that at this moment, we have yet to set up a primary school for the continuity of their education. Therefore, allow me to advise you young parents, if you were to choose private school, choose an institution with clear vision and goals so that the children will not become the victims to the vulnerable education planning.

Do not simply choose a school that offers the lowest fees because you have to ensure that the school has enough budgets for good facilities, teachers’ training and development which are very costly.

Every Moslem parent wants the children to be soleheen and solehaat, but please be careful of those schools who make use of Islam.

Government schools normally have good facilities with certified teachers. However, our children might loss his potentials as there will be less monitoring. If you decide to send your child to government school, please consider CIC’s After School Program for their enrichments. CIC’s After School Program has small number of students enable your child to flourish more.

At CIC, we develop young leaders, hoping that they will be given opportunities to learning as much as they can and develop their highest capabilities to be able to optimize their best roles in every field they are into in the future.

History of formal education started with the royal families, aristocrats and the elites. Meaning that only children with certain background were educated. Public children were not educated and were thought to use the weapon to go to the war.

Later, when public children also went to school, the system produced them to be labors and taught them to be obedient. Those people who were against this, voiced about freedom and setup alternative schools to offer the freedom of learning and things unavailable in the mainstream education.

Now brothers and sisters, I believe we have to be moderate about the 2 choices. Mainstream education is not perfect. In fact education is never perfect. But the key is to keep improve. However, we cannot get trapped in the alternative education as pulling the children out from the mainstream education is not a progressive move. Remain in the mainstream education will make the children more competitive.

Besides, there is no absolute freedom in Islam. While we believe that people are free, they are still accountable in front of Allah for what they do.

Meaning that rulings and system are very important in the children’s education. They are not totally free, but free within boundaries.

Therefore I believe we must continue with the mainstream education sytem to develop highly capable citizens who can contribute to the country while enrich them with virtuous independent characters that are strong emotionally and spiritually. In other words, I am worried that the alternative education, you might find it in many names, might be vulnerable to prepare our children for the established world system.

Lastly, as in the history, those who have superior abilities and qualities to the rest of the society,are advanced in the education of their children, they normally see the opportunities and the needs of education in preparation for reaching the opportunities ahead of others. I hope you and your families will be among them.

As the famous saying in the Islamic tradition, “AdDunya Mazra’tul Akhirah”, meaning that worldly affairs are the plantation or the investment of Hereafter, we understand that world is important for the hereafter and we have to be clear on the purpose is for submission to Allah SWT.

(Qutren Nada Ahmad)