PricewaterhouseCoopers

– COP MYReaders, helping students read better in English –

One of our Corporate Responsibility area of focus is to help disadvantaged youth achieve their full potential through education via several initiatives including our Community Outreach Programme (COP). Since 2002, our COP volunteers spend 5-months at selected charity homes to tutor underprivileged children and assist the homes with administrative duties. In 2017, we expanded this programme to SMK Bandar Baru Ampang collaborating with MYReaders (a non-profit) with the aim to improve literacy.

This programme targets secondary school students who are unable to read in English (reading levels between pre-kindergarten to standard 1). Each volunteer dedicates two weeks of their time helping the students to read better in English using a specially designed and structured syllabus that covers phonics, fluency and comprehension and the students’ progress are measured through pre, mid and post diagnostic tests. We recorded positive outcome from our pilot programme last year – reading ability for participating students grew by 47% on average and they could answer 40% more comprehension questions than before, with one student growing by 2 reading years (from Kindergarten to Standard 2 level).

The teachers and school administrators also shared qualitative positive changes in the students’ learning behaviours as they are now seen to be more confident to speak up and read in English – watch our video to see the students’ progress. We also have other similar programmes on education sharing at the schools we support – read the CR section on our Annual Report or check out our hashtag on social media #PwCMYCR.

For more information please visit us at https://www.pwc.com/my/en/publications/pwc-annual-report-2017/workforce/cr/my-readers.html