When it comes to Covid-19, many organisations have come to the fore, addressing different needs of people and communities stricken by the pandemic. In the case of the YTL Foundation, which was founded in 1997 with the ethos of building better societies through education, the closure of schools had made it even more essential to deliver education into the homes of the ones most impacted, particularly the B40 group who may not have the same access to high-speed internet and e-learning modules.
The foundation’s Learn From Home initiative leverages on the connectivity of YES and the learning resources designed by digital learning platform FrogAsia. The result is free mobile data and online learning materials for children who have been kept from attending classes during this period of Movement Control Order (MCO).
YTL Foundation Programme Director Datin Kathleen Chew says the foundation’s overriding objective is to support families in this unprecedented time of crisis – in which there is no telling of when exactly normality will return. “We want to equip homes with the tools that will enable students to continue learning from home to minimise the disruption to their studies. We know that at these times, the B40 households will suffer the most and are trying to help them by engaging our partners within the YTL Group and others like Teach For Malaysia. By equipping them with a device and data, our goal is simply that these children are not left behind in their education during this time,” she says.
“When the Government announced the MCO, our thoughts immediately turned to the parents and students who would have to cope with schools being closed. As a foundation whose mission is to improve education, how can we help families during this period of uncertainty? Online learning is one solution but would online learning at home be welcome? So we sent out a survey to the various communities we work. From the responses it was clear that parents were anxious about how their children would study out of school and would welcome online lessons. However, around 50 per cent of those surveyed said they did not have enough data at home for their children to access online lessons and learning resources. We knew that these were parents in the lower income group whose incomes were now at risk. So we approached YTL Communications and asked if they would work with us to give free SIM cards to students who needed data for their lessons. We also brought FrogAsia on board as they have a digital platform and learning resources.”
The result of this was the establishment of a reliable programme which provides free mobile phones and data to those most in need. Government school teachers – who would know the needs of the children and families most clearly – have been asked to speak to the parents and students and to submit an online form, nominating these families as recipients of the free mobile device which comes with a prepaid YES 4G SIM card, and a 12-month data plan for 120GB of data in total. “We are working with YTL Communications to deliver the phones and are trying to engage more partners to come on board,” Chew says.
“Since announcing that we are giving out free mobile phones and data plans to students in B40 families to access online lessons, we have received many enquiries from NGOs, elected representatives, community workers and concerned individuals asking if they can nominate these families to receive the free mobile phones. These parties work directly with B40 communities and are able to identify the students who need help.
We have therefore decided to open up the nominations so that not only teachers but any concerned Malaysian who is willing to take the time and effort to send in a nomination can now do so,” Datin Kathleen Chew adds.
As an extension to this programme, a free prepaid Yes 4G SIM with 40GB of data is also available to any parent with children in government primary and secondary schools, with a provision of up to 5 SIMs per family. To make it enjoyable for the students, the FrogPlay Mobile App offers over 10,000 revision quizzes, with the game format making it an incentive for children to keep learning. Teach For Malaysia’s contribution are weekly lessons in Math, English and Science.
To learn more, visit the YTL Foundation website
