Alternatives are being found to help students in the My Readers’ Programme.
Leslie Lau.
MIRI: More than two years after it was established in November 2016, with 14 students currently under its My Readers Programme, Miri Division Education Initiative Society (MEIS) is now planning to expand its programme with more volunteers and a portable library to help illiterate children learn the English language.
MEIS, a legally registered non-profit organisation, ran its pilot project in Oct 2017.
Inspired by Teach for Malaysia (TFM), MEIS’ My Readers’ Programme is a comprehensive reading programme that is designed to get students leap from illiteracy to literacy in a scheduled time, starting from phonics.
“The first batch students who are all from Tudan Desaras have been progressing well, with just five of them struggling behind our set schedule due to level of understanding,” MEIS founder Leslie Lau told The Borneo Post yesterday.
As a counter measure, he informed that they are looking at ways to help these students as well as those who are willing to learn more.
“As for the overall result, we are proud to say that it is satisfactory, as many of them who could not speak a single word of English, are now confident of conversing in English with volunteers and with peers. There are students who requested us to conduct the class once every week, instead of once every fortnight, but due to lack of manpower, we are looking at the plan to build a portable library so that children who wish to learn can go to the portable library to learn by themselves before continuing with the session the following week with MEIS volunteers.”
The portable or mobile library, he added, is a contemporary concept that crossed their mind after detailed discussion within the committee.
“We were asked why portable instead of permanent library. After calculation, we found that making a portable library would cost about RM15,000, so which we planned to do a public funding for this purpose.
“If we are doing a permanent library at Tudan Desaras using public donation, it would be unfair for those who supported the project. After a more complete facility is built at Tudan Desaras, we could move the portable library to other places around Miri so that other children could enjoy the facility too,” said Lau, adding that MEIS aims to encourage reading among young children in Miri through the facility.
Currently, the My Readers programme is conducted at a house kindly rented out by a resident living near Tudan Desaras, for which Lau is very grateful.
“Of course, in terms of manpower, we are hoping to recruit more volunteers as we have only seven volunteers currently working on the programme, thus we are ready to tender our proposal to higher learning institutions such as IBS College and Curtin University Sarawak, Malaysia.
“Majority of these students have no problem communicating in the English language. It is also a great opportunity for them to be part of the community service, as it exposes them to volunteerism.”
Children from Tudan Desaras, he said, were chosen as MEIS’ first batch for the programme as the families living there were from the lower income or hard-core poor group. MEIS officially ran its pilot programme in early July last year and the 27 sessions are expected to complete by August next year.
After the completion of the programme, Lau said they would either take a new batch for the programme or bring the programme to schools to assist teachers in their teaching method.
“We have some ideas in mind but it would be only after the completion of the programme, which we now want to focus on,” he said, adding that students who fall behind others would have their lessons extended to help them cope. MEIS is currently in need of financial support to build the portable library as well as donation in terms of money or food (for the students’ snack) and reading materials at the library.
The society can be reached at www.meis.org.my or via email [email protected]. Lau can be contacted at 019-864 6363 for more details and inquiry.