NEWS

Kumaran Arumugam has been a sports coach and physical education teacher for close to 12 years. In these 12 years he has held vital roles such as Assistant Head of department(sports), Head of Department (Physical Education), Subject Lead (Physical Education/CCA) & Director of Sports/Co-Founder for various schools and organizations.

Despite his young age and for being the youngest Head of Department in the CPE Singapore (committee of private education) at 27-year-old. He has held these leadership roles to lead his departments in attaining key success in the education industry. Some of his successes include securing shoe sponsorship in 2019 for 200 students that are from low-income backgrounds so that these students have proper shoe wear for them to play sports and to take part in physical activities.

He was invited by various educational centers to conduct a talk/workshop on working with students with autism. He also collaborated with Singapore Taekwondo Federation to provide opportunities for para-athletes that includes students with hearing loss and visual impairment to compete in taekwondo competitions. In 2023 Kumaran also collaborated with Singapore Disability Sports Council & Certis Cisco to launch GoalBall29 programme to identify and invite potential players to the Goalball National Team in preparation of ASEAN para games in 2029.

For his effort to make a change in the disability community in Singapore he was awarded People Choice Community Changemaker of the year at the Singapore Disability Sports Award. This is not the first time he had received an award; he was also voted Most Inspiring Coach for 2018 & 2019 by his fellow colleagues and coaches and in 2019 he also received Coach of the Year (Excellence) award for his dedication to his students. His first award came in 2014, where he was awarded Best Assistant Coach of the year when he was a junior coach at Real Madrid Singapore Football Academy.

Kumaran also dedicates these awards to his mother who has been his pillar of support in pursuing sports as a career. Recently he also has turned down the chance to be a vice principal at two different orgainzation so that he can continue to work with students with disabilities as a physical education teacher and a sports coach. He believes he can make a difference as a educator more tthanbeing a school leader.

By being awarded Asia’s Inspiring Icon Award in Sports and Physical Education' Asia awards powered by World Research Congress, kumaran feel thankful and proud that special need teachers are getting the recognized for their effort and dedication in making this world an inclusive and accepting of everyone with disability. This award has given kumaran the platform to share the work he has been doing with the disability community and hopes that more people come forward to either volunteer or share their time with people with disabilities. Together we can change lives and make the world a inclusive one.