With the Movement Control Order extended until April 28, millions of students in Malaysia, including more than 4.9 million school-goers, are confined to their homes.
“I formed a WhatsApp group for my students since the start of the school year. Although I received good response initially, now only half of them are active. Since school closures added pressure on low-income families, his school worked with the parent-teacher association to provide food aid to students.
“Students are responding well. Some have difficulties accessing the e-learning materials, so we rope in their peers to reach out and help them,” said Sirhajwan, who teaches students aged between 16 and 19. Vanesri Kasi, who teaches English and remedial classes for Year 4 to 6 pupils at SK Bertam Perdana, Penang, uses WhatsApp, Google Classroom and Zoom to provide learning materials, quizzes and videos in line with the syllabus.“Some children do not have access to a computer or Internet connection, while some parents are not reachable by phone. So I provide such children simple notes and quizzes, which I send via text messages, to get them involved in lessons.