IT’S OPEN: Renaldo (right) and Williams open the newly decorated Power of Reading resource room.
TAWAU: Teachers and parents of two primary schools in Sabah have come together to launch the new Power of Reading programme, a collaboration between the education arms of the UK and Malaysia.
The British Council donated close to 4,000 popular English language children’s books to the schools as part of a literacy and language education initiative across East Malaysian primary schools.
Tawau schools SK Kinabutan and SK Taman Tawau were selected to pilot the initiative.
SK Taman Tawau welcomed the books as it had lost its library in a fire.
“It was in the final three of a national contest for school libraries when the library was destroyed in a fire in 2008,” said District English Language officer Renaldo de los Santos of PPD Tawau.
“The British Council’s Power of Reading donation is a breath of life for the children of SK Taman Tawau and will provide a wonderful experience for the children,” he added.
English Language Teacher Development Project (ELTDP) project manager for East Sabah, Ian Williams, conducted storytelling sessions for the pupils, reading them two of his favourite titles, ‘Tall’ and ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’.
“The British Council is delighted to entrust these schools with such lovely books. It is fantastic to see how the schools and communities have come together to make the most of this opportunity for their children,” Ian said on the Power of Reading project.
The schools are part of the British Council and Ministry of Education Malaysia’s ELTDP which has placed 120 international teacher development mentors in 600 East Malaysia primary schools between 2011 and 2013.
The British Council mentors are working alongside Malaysian teachers to implement the new KSSR primary English curriculum and support individuated teacher development.
The ELTDP Power of Reading pilot involves stocking schools with high quality children’s books, which schools use to plan and run creative reading activity programmes to inspire their pupils’ literacy and language development.
Regular interaction with captivating books combined with engaging story activities such as drama, drawing, role play and re-telling have been shown to improve reading and other language skills as well as increase creativity, memory and motivation for reading and learning in all subjects.
For now, 18,000 books have been donated to 19 schools in Sabah but the intention of the British Council is for this opportunity to be offered to all primary schools in future.
“We will monitor the results in these pilot schools and I have every confidence that the excellent teacher, parent, mentor and PPD teamwork at SK Kinabutan and SK Taman Tawau will show how effective this initiative can be in nurturing children’s academic and personal development,” Williams said.