KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 10 (Bernama) -- The Financial Industry Collective Outreach (FINCO) sponsored the third and final Reading Hunt programme, i.e. Reading Hunt 3, at SK Rampayan, Menggatal, Sabah last Saturday, 4 November 2017. The Reading Hunt programme at SK Rampayan was a pilot project initiated by Soroptimist International Kota Kinabalu (SIKK) with the cooperation of the Sabah State Education Department and Sabah State Library to raise the pupil’s level of English proficiency. 

The objective of the Reading Hunt is to provide teachers with the resources to make reading in English a fun activity for students, thereby increasing their engagement with English reading materials and widening their access to knowledge in English both in print and online. The year-long programme runs during the English class curriculum and culminates in three Reading Hunt event. Present at the event was Mohd Fazli Abd Rozan, Principal Assistant Director, Sabah State Education Department and Syed Anuar Syed Ali, Deputy Chairman, FINCO Steering Committee and Head, Group Communications and Marketing, AmBank Group.  

A total of 43 standard four students participated in the pilot project, while 19 students participated in an English activity run by Sabah State Library concurrently. Volunteers from AmBank, Prudential, Maybank and Soroptimist International Kota Kinabalu assisted the teachers in running the activities. The Reading Hunt programme was developed by the English teachers of SK Rampayan with support from Soroptimist International Kota Kinabalu volunteers, namely Hanaa Abdullah and Audrey Fung. 

FINCO will be developing modules to expand the programme to 14 schools in seven districts of Sabah in 2018. The expansion plan has been developed with the advice of Sabah State Education Department. 

FINCO is an integrated initiative by the financial institutions to carry out their corporate social responsibility, was set up by Bank Negara Malaysia to focus on implementing programmes to boost the command of English language and motivation for children and youth from the low income group. 

FINCO was officially launched during the Sabah Financial Carnival held on 4 August 2017 by YAB Datuk Seri Panglima Musa Haji Aman, Chief Minister of Sabah, Datuk Muhammad Ibrahim, Governor, Bank Negara and Tan Sri Azman Hashim, Chairman, FINCO. Sabah is the first state in Malaysia to launch the programme before it is expanded nationwide. 

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