Building Community Pride Through Aquaponics Extension Initiatives
Imagine a primary school kid who welcomes visitors to their school, no matter what program the visitors are attending. After the event, students will happily approach visitors, ask if they are free and gently pull visitors’ hands to their school’s iconic landmark - an aquaponic system. Community pride rarely emerges from majestic infrastructure or iconic landmark alone. More often, it grows quietly from everyday places where people learn, care and take responsibility together.
A collaboration between Universiti Putra Malaysia Bintulu Sarawak Campus (UPMKB) and Sekolah Kebangsaan Sungai Bagiau (SK Sg. Bagiau) initiated since 2024, established a small-scale aquaponic system primarily designed as an educational platform integrating science learning, food security awareness, and responsibility. The school-based aquaponic initiative eventually developed into the community’s pride. While never intended to be a tourist attraction, it has evolved into a meaningful learning space, and a point of pride for the school community, led by its youngest members.
A small-scale aquaponic system primarily for supporting learning and daily routine is able to empower youth into confident hosts.
The initiative is deeply woven into daily school life as Primary 1 students feed the fish every Tuesday as part of their regular class routine while Primary 2 students take on greater responsibility every Thursday to feed the fish, conduct simple water quality testing and measuring fish length under teacher guidance. These activities are not carried out as special events but ordinary daily routine similar to cleaning the class and washing student’s own plate.
Over time, these routines have molded the primary students to be more consistently more caring and patient for the fish and plants. Students learn that their attitude towards these routine tasks such as fish measurement accuracy and water quality monitoring have visible consequences towards the living organisms. Teachers observe that students gradually become more confident in feeding and measuring tasks as well as being more attentive and more willing to work together as a team. Responsibility is not taught but practiced.
According to teachers at SK Sg. Bagiau, the aquaponic system gives students a hands-on way to learn about sustainability, science and responsibility. They understand how the ecosystem works while encouraging teamwork and problem-solving skills. Learning becomes tangible when students can see fish grow and plants thrive through their consistent care. The sense of ownership has transformed the aquaponic system into something more than an educational tool.
The school never positioned itself as a tourism site, yet visitors still come. Education officers, agency representatives, community stakeholders came to the school for other events. However, when they come, students intentionally show the aquaponic system as part of the school visit.
Teachers led the visitors and shared what they value: learning through care, responsibility through routine and pride through action. In some instance, students are the ones involved in leading visitors to the aquaponic system and explaining their effort on it. They are able to describe feeding methods, checking water quality and how plants depend on the fish.
Teachers provide guidance to ensure explanations are clear and accurate, but the credit still belongs to the students. These interactions show that students are no longer learners and have become ambassadors of the school.
The sense of pride was not limited within the walls of SK Sg. Bagiau. Teachers and students who participated in STEM Project- Based Learning Carnival at the district level in January 2025, displayed their aquaponic work sharing not only the system itself but also the story behind it.
The response from participants and jury were encouraging as another school later expressed interest to UPM in establishing similar aquaponic system at their school. This shows that community pride and learning can spread through example rather than formal replication of programs.
We acquired several important lessons from SK Sg Bagiau experience. First, community pride does not require large- scale projects. It can grow from simple, well-supported initiatives that trust young people with real responsibility. Secondly, youth empowerment is most effective when it is embedded in everyday routines and not treated as special occasional activity. When responsibility becomes normal, confidence follows. Thirdly, meaningful places do not need to be labelled destinations. If a school can become a landmark within the community, likewise an aquaponic system can become a landmark of the school because it reflects the community’s pride.
Ordinary places with stories where communities care about could also be potential tourism destinations.
SK Sg. Bagiau’s story offers an important insight into responsible tourism. The small- scale aquaponic system does more than supportlearning; it prepares the community to receive others with confidence and care.
Communities could not suddenly become responsible hosts when tourism arrives. Stewardship, responsibility, hospitality and care are built earlier before visitors come. Responsible tourism begins not at destinations but in ordinary places where communities care about and have stories to share.
