Padang teacher's innovation wins award from Malaysia
A Keminangkabauan teacher at SMA Pembangunan Laboratorium Universitas Negeri Padang (UNP), West Sumatra, Hesty Tarmizi, has won an award from Universiti Utara Malaysia for her innovation in teaching Minangkabau culture.
Prof Afdal, chairman of the YPPLP UNP Education Foundation, said the event brought together academics, teachers, researchers, students and university students from various countries, including Malaysia and Indonesia.
“One of the agendas was an international action research competition. Our teacher, Mrs Hesty Tarmizi, won the Gold Trophy in second place with her Minangkabau cultural learning innovation titled ‘Instilling Minangkabau Values through the Implementation of Sumbang Duo Baleh’,” Afdal said in Padang on Monday.
He said the International Conference on Islamic Education and Development (ICIED) 2026, organised by the Malaysian Muslim Intellectuals Association (PIMM) in cooperation with Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) in Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia, included the ICIED Action Research Competition (I-ACTION) category with the theme ‘Transforming Islamic Education for Global Excellence and a Sustainable Future’.
He said the event, held on 26 August 2026, was an international forum that provided a valuable opportunity to continue developing and broadening international-level insights.
Meanwhile, Afrizal, headmaster of SMA Pembangunan Laboratorium UNP, said the participation of students and teachers from the school in this event reflected the school’s commitment to producing outstanding generations with a global outlook.
In addition to the teacher, SMA Labschool UNP also sent a student representative, Putri Asyifa Azzahra Hanif, a Year XI F1 pupil, to take part in the Fun Learning & Creative Research (I-FICR) category at the event.
“We do not only focus on academic achievement in the classroom, but also encourage students and teachers to test their capacities on the world stage, in the hope that this international experience can broaden global perspectives and strengthen future competitiveness,” he said.
He explained that the teacher created a character named Karimah in comics and animation, intended to serve as a role model for the Islamic generation in Minangkabau who possess akhlakul karimah, or noble and praiseworthy behaviour in accordance with Islamic teachings.
Sumbang Duo Baleh is an unwritten code of ethics and etiquette in Minangkabau custom that governs moral behaviour and proper conduct.
According to him, the word ‘sumbang’ means awkward, unusual, or an act considered improper according to norms, while ‘duo baleh’ means twelve, indicating that there are twelve forms of behaviour considered sumbang and to be avoided.
These twelve points were expressed in the form of comic strips featuring a female student character named Karimah.