Reaching out

THE pandemic has prevented many non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from getting to B40 students but where there is a will, there’s a way. Here’s how two local NGOs made sure the underserved did not fall behind.

“We started by helping B40 families apply for free devices and data plans offered by corporations before moving our own education programmes online. When we realised that many parents – especially those with big families – could not afford data plans, we provided them with 40GB of data every month so that their children could attend online classes. But digital accessibility alone does not lead to good learning outcomes. The issue with self-learning was that most students would skip topics that they did not learn in school or did not understand. So instead of being able to learn more on their own, they kept revising topics they already knew. With the right guidance, the children from our KidzREAD English literacy programme improved their reading and writing in just 10 sessions. We are now advocating for not just digital accessibility, but also for quality online learning solutions. We have also launched the KidzRead Network to support volunteer groups or other non-profits who want to carry out English literacy programmes in their respective communities because we believe that learning is the right of every child.” — Yayasan Generasi Gemilang section head of education services Caryn Ng