KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysian educationist Raja Singham has been awarded the 2025 Gandhi Memorial Trust (GMT) Award for Public Services, in recognition of his decades-long contribution to education, social good and humanitarian work.
The award was presented on October 2, Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday, at a ceremony organised by the Gandhi Memorial Trust. Raja, the co-founder and managing director of the BAC Education Group, accepted the honour with what he described as “shared humility”.
“It is an honour to receive this award on Gandhi’s birthday,” Raja said. “But this is not a personal achievement — it belongs to my wife, my family, my colleagues at BAC, and the many donors, friends and supporters who have walked this journey with me. Nothing we do is ever done alone.”
For more than 30 years, Raja has built BAC Education into a network of over 25 institutions spanning higher education, training, digital media and technology. But his mission has extended beyond classrooms — to character-building, inclusivity and service.
BAC’s online platforms, including SPMFlix and IGCSEFlix, have offered more than 9,000 free lessons to students nationwide, while initiatives such as 1MillionDevices.my have distributed laptops and tablets to underprivileged children.
During the pandemic, the FreeMakan campaign provided food aid to over 200,000 people, and humanitarian relief was extended in partnership with Unicef to India, Sri Lanka and Nepal.
Raja’s projects have also supported refugees, stateless children and persons with disabilities. Meanwhile, entrepreneurship programmes like Project Deep and the Asean Mentorship for Entrepreneurs Network (Amen) have trained and funded more than 10,000 entrepreneurs across the region.
Quoting Gandhi’s words —“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in service to others” — Raja reminded the audience that education must be rooted in compassion.
“Education is not just about literacy or knowledge. It’s about building character and serving humanity. We must stop viewing people through the lens of race, citizenship, or religion. Service means service to humanity — regardless of who they are,” he said.
He added that humility and small acts of care remain powerful forces for change: “Sometimes it begins with just listening to someone who has a problem. Nothing is impossible if we start now.”
Raja now stands alongside past GMT recipients including the late Datuk Seri Karpal Singh, who was honoured posthumously for his legal and human rights advocacy; lawyer and activist Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan; and peace campaigner Datuk Dr Anwar Fazal.
Closing his remarks, Raja dedicated the award to students, colleagues and communities who shared his vision.
“This award belongs to every student, every colleague, every donor and every partner who has believed in the power of education and service,” he said. — October 5, 2025
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