Astro continues to champion education for all students, with its latest initiative at SK Magandai, 74km from Kota Marudu, Sabah. Euan Smith, Astro’s Group Chief Executive Officer – Designate presented a mock cheque for RM40,000 to the school for education purposes. SK Magandai is also the home of the first Astro Kasih hostel, completed in 2010. At the presentation, Smith also announced a special education grant of RM500 will be given to the top 3 students in SK Magandai to motivate the students to achieve excellence in their academics.
Smith said: “Education has always been close to our hearts and the kids in our hostels are our inspiration. We want to keep opening the minds of all children through initiatives like our learning channels Tutor TV and outreach programmes like what we’ve built here with the community of SK Magandai. We are privileged to partner with the community, parents, teachers and the children at Magandai for education over a decade, and we have witnessed how the students have done well for themselves. We’ve built school hostels, organised the Walk for Education and want to do more, so we’re offering an education grant as incentive for students to keep doing better.”
The headmaster of SK Magandai, Cikgu Jairun also shared that “Deep in the interiors of Sabah, SK Magandai has close to 130 students with about 50 of the students staying at the Astro hostel. Since the hostel has been built, the students’ commute time to and from their village to the school has been reduced tremendously, allowing students to utilise that time for their studies. Dropout rates have reduced, and attendance rates have improved. One of our past achievements is that our school chalked a new record the very next year by achieving the highest passing rate of 87.5%, making us top in the Kota Marudu district since the hostel was built.”
Astro has donated the proceeds from the Walk for Education event organised in May worth RM40,000 and education supplies like LCD projector, PA system, learning books and more to support the children’s education as well as to raise awareness of remote students who walk to school every day.
