Equipping intellectually-disabled kids with access to e-learning

PENANG, 23 September 2020 – Committed to ensuring that education is accessible to all, Deloitte Malaysia provided 20 tablets to students from Sekolah Kanak Kanak Terencat Akal. Joining hands with the YTL Foundation, students now have access to technology, as tablets come equipped with a mobile data plan.

With the current global pandemic, education in Malaysia has gone through a substantial shift, from physical learning to virtual classrooms at home, and now to our new normal of socially-distant classroom learning in schools. For the intellectually-disabled children, this drastic change in their routine is especially stressful.

Through Deloitte KidsEdu, a CSR programme focused on making education accessible to children in the B40 community, Deloitte volunteers will work together with the teachers in the school to provide selected more abled students with the technology know-how (such as usage of tablet, handling of zoom, typing), with the eventual aim of running virtual classes using learning resources developed by YTL Foundation in collaboration with FrogAsia.

“We are continually adapting and changing the way we do things during this pandemic. Education is one of them and the shift towards online education has its fair share of challenges. Without access to technology, many children from the underserved communities in Malaysia are finding it difficult to adopt virtual learning,” said Yee Wing Peng, Chief Executive Officer of Deloitte Malaysia. “As we move towards the Fourth Industrial Revolution, marked by accelerating innovation, automation of processes, and an increased focus on digitalisation, we hope this initiative will help nurture students with the needed core skills for the future of work,” he added.

“We are delighted to collaborate with Deloitte Malaysia to enable the children’s access to online learning. At YTL Foundation, we are especially concerned about students in high-need communities. When the Movement Control Order (MCO) was implemented and schools closed, we decided to introduce the Learn From Home Initiative to enable teaching and learning to continue at home. Working with YTL Communications and FrogAsia, we provide Yes 4G SIM cards with free mobile data to children in Government schools as well as free mobile phones and data to students in B40 families. This collaboration is yet another step towards ensuring that no child is left behind in their education journey,” said Datin Kathleen Chew, Programme Director of YTL Foundation.

Deloitte KidsEdu is part of Deloitte’s Global WorldClass initiative to impact 50 million futures by 2030. Launched in June 2019 and supported by MyPJ, Deloitte Malaysia’s team of volunteers run weekly English classes for approximately 120 primary school students, from the ages of 7 to 12, in two B40 communities – Desa Mentari (Bandar Sunway) and Sri Pantai (Kuala Lumpur). These weekly classes are conducted at common spaces within the People’s Public Housing (PPR) communities. In July 2020, classes successfully transitioned from physical to fully online. KidsEdu Online Classes are attended by approximately 100 students weekly, and are wholly taught by Deloitte volunteers, using materials from FrogAsia.

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