Children of SK Serayan Keranji in Lundu enjoy reading the wide variety of books contributed by iM Sarawak.
KUCHING: The iM Sarawak, a social development initiative under the 1Malaysia Sarawak Advisory Council (1MSAC), has always stressed its commitment to helping Sarawakians by focusing on education.
Its signature project, the iM Sarawak School Adoption Programme, kicked off in 2014 with the cooperation from the state Education Department.
“We at iM Sarawak believe that a sound education is a sure way to improve one’s quality of life in the future. As such, we have embarked on various education initiatives in the rural and interior schools,” said 1Malaysia Sarawak Advisory Council chairman Datuk Joseph Salang Gandum in a press statement yesterday.
Under the programme, iM Sarawak sends reading materials to 1,145 schools across Sarawak to inculcate a healthy reading habit in students.
These resources include story books, reference books, revision books and dictionaries.
This programme encompasses both primary and secondary schools and covers close to 80 per cent of all schools in Sarawak.
“Through follow-up visits, we have found that the books are well-received by both the teachers and the students. I commend the teachers for their commitment in using the books to cultivate a love for reading in their students,” said Salang.
Citing SK Limbang as an example, he said the teachers there came up with a programme called ‘Program Santapan Minda’ where students would be divided into groups and take turns to read aloud to their group members.
“The schools under the iM Sarawak programme are doing wonderful things with the resources that we have provided to them. It always amazes me how great things can be achieved with a little bit of help and a lot of dedication and efforts. I hope our books would continue to be a source of education and delight for both the present and future students of these schools,” said Salang.
In her remarks, SK Limbang headmistress Hayati Sallehuddin said: “The books donated by iM Sarawak are very interesting as they have colourful illustrations, which attract the children to read and at the same time, help cultivate good reading habit and understanding in them. Through a strong reading culture, our pupils have discovered new potential in terms of reading.
“Some of them have progressed to achieve the ‘Anugerah Nilam’ at the division-level tournaments.”
Other school activities include an inter-class storytelling competitions that allowed pupils to take the books back to their longhouses over the weekends, inclusion of reading sessions in the timetable, and having books available at the parent-student waiting area.
According to the schoolteachers, these initiatives had helped to nurture and raise the interest in reading. Moreover, it resulted in the pupils gaining better fluency in the English Language and Bahasa Malaysia, increasing their confidence level in speaking, and also fostering interest in other languages.
Additionally, some pupils even won competitions such as the district-level inter-school storytelling competitions, as a result of their increased exposure to English and Bahasa Malaysia.