Businessman hails return of NiE when school reopens

MELAKA: Newspapers should continue to play a role to complement classroom learning, says a businessman who advocates tools like Newspapers in Education (NiE) in helping students when they return to school.

Datuk G. Balachandran said such study aids will be a boost for students when they go back to school after Covid-19 restrictions are eased.

"These learning tools have an edge over the digital platforms for the students, especially after not having attended physical lessons for a while because of the pandemic," said the chief operating officer and executive director of ATA IMS Bhd, an electronics manufacturing service company.

Balachandran said he will support the comeback of NiE, which is published by The Star, on its mission to improve language literacy and promote the reading culture among students.

"NiE has greatly benefited students in the past and has helped them in public speaking, too," said Balachandran, who pledged a sponsorship for NiE.

He was speaking to the media after handing over 1,500 school bags to Melaka Chief Minister Datuk Seri Sulaiman Md Ali to be distributed to needy students.

The Star’s NiE programme promotes literacy by using the newspaper as a teaching tool.

The first of 20 issues is slated for publication on March 17 when school reopens.

Published bi-monthly on Wednesdays, the colourful Star-NiE pullout is written by a team of experienced English language teachers and specialists, and is packed with hands-on activities for the classroom.

The NiE pullout, which comes with a copy of The Star, has 16 pages per issue. The pullout follows themes in the national syllabus and organises its activities into elementary, intermediate and advanced levels.

The programme is supported by the Education Ministry. For more information, call The Star’s Customer Care Unit at 1-300-88-7827 from Monday to Friday (9am-5pm).