Activity Report 2021

Chairperson’s Foreword

Shahnaz Al- Sadat

2021 and 2020 have been difficult and challenging times. This is an understatement when it comes to learning and education.

No one was prepared for what happened and is continuing to unfold. The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly disrupted children’s lives all over the world – the certainty of routines, playtime with friends, learning from teachers, access to nutrition, escape from the harshness of home life, for some. A place of safety for many.

In a recent report by the Asian Development Bank, it is estimated that globally, 85% of the poorest (B20) school-age children do not have internet access at home. This has led them to predict that children from the poorest households are expected to lose 47% more in lifetime earnings than those from the richest households. In short, inequity will exacerbate.

Bringing this closer to home, according to the World Bank report, an estimated 1.3 years of learning losses have been incurred by Malaysian students. This has greatly impacted learning outcomes and has widened the existing learning gaps and inequity present among the students.

This is a bleak picture to paint, especially as the beginning of a Foreword in our Activity Report. However, we have always taught our schools to be brutally honest when determining their baselines, so we must do the same for ourselves. It is our second year into the pandemic, yet the landscape change is as constant as the uncertainty. We needed to have a firm grip of our reality, in order to not waver in our mission. We need to help these children gain a better future.

I wish to thank all those who have stood beside us, to ensure these children are seen and heard. Thank you to the Ministry of Education Malaysia, the State Education Departments, the District Education offices, the many leadership teams in schools, the teachers, the students and their parents, the sponsors and partners and of course, all LeapEdians who have brought us all here today.

Despite the challenges, we know that all of you will continue to put all your heart, soul and resources in finding and implementing solutions. InsyaaAllah we will charge forward together and we look forward to a better tomorrow.

Managing Director’s Message

Zulhaimi Othman

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt education for millions of children around the world. In Malaysia, schools were reopened in stages in March before being closed again in June. Online lessons were implemented to ensure education continuity, but the debate continues on how much students have learnt (or lost) during school closures. The most affected are students with underprivileged background who do not have access to remote learning tools.

The team continued to innovate our ways to support teachers and schools. We launched LeapEd Global Learning, an online platform for educators and students to express and share their insights on global issues. It was great to see the students from 97 schools communicating their ideas and stories during the sessions. While we recognise the positive impact of borderless collaboration through online learning, there’s also potential risks for these young students once they enter the digital world. So we have developed and launched CyberWira, an online digital citizenship course, to help students navigate the online world.

2021 also saw LeapEd win the CSR Award: The Best Social Enterprise of the Year for the third consecutive year. We also won the Social Impact Challenge Acceleration organised by MaGIC. These accolades certainly provided a morale boost to the team.

As safety of LeapEdians remained a priority, the team continued the Way of Working Programme, allowing LeapEdians to Work From Home (WFH). This mode enabled the team to stay focused and helped to lessen the spread of COVID19 among colleagues.

The pandemic has highlighted challenges and opportunities for us. I would like to thank my fellow LeapEdians, sponsors, teachers, students and community for their perseverance, commitment, and hard work.

Executive Director’s Message

Nina Adlan Disney

The year 2021 was when we rolled up our sleeves and redoubled our efforts to reach out to the world and create greater awareness of our impact.

As an education thought leader, we appeared on TV, radio, printed news, online news, and spoke at multiple online forums – all with the aim of sharing our insights on current developments, based on our experience on the ground in more than 100 government schools over the last 11 years.

As we continued with the challenges of online learning, we also ran a nationwide campaign on digital citizenship (CyberWira), with more than 26,000 subscribers among students, teachers and parents. Our sincere thanks to the corporates, partners and individuals who made this possible.

Together with our partners, we tried to reach out to our most vulnerable students in our most marginalised communities. We also reached out to work with like-minded individuals beyond Malaysia, via organisations like T4 Education and our Global Learning Platform.

Our work is not done, and with the support of sponsors and partners, we will continue to design, develop and deliver solutions to recover from learning losses, and ensure that our education system emerges from the pandemic more flexible, equitable, and resilient.

Executive Director’s Message

Conrad Roy Fernandez

I am proud of the schools’ achievements despite the pandemic which wreaked havoc especially on the students. Just like any other school, our Trust Schools also struggled to prepare for the reopening of the schools, only for them to be shut down again a few months later. Nevertheless, the silver lining through this start-stop year was having all our Trust Schools continue to build on the foundations we laid out pre-Covid. Even better, we had 37 Trust Schools being awarded the Tamat Tempoh Matang Intervensi Program (TTMIP) status by the Ministry of Education! This recognition is given to Trust Schools that have completed the Trust Schools Programme (TSP) interventions and achieved the respective key performance targets (KPTs). The burden was on schools to demonstrate resilience and sustainability on these very rigorous KPTs, which they did in inspiring fashion. I am sure the schools have the knowledge, skill and grit to continue the transformation journey. My heartiest congratulations to all 37 Trust Schools for this success. Once a Trust School, always a Trust School!

Meanwhile, I would like to recognise the positive progression in the remaining 21 schools in TSP1.0 and nine schools in TSP2.0 despite the school closures. TSP2.0 is the latest and improved TSP which uses a customised approach according to the needs of each school. I am thankful that our ground team remained steadfast in engaging schools to offer support during this challenging time. We are also excited to welcome 2 new schools in Bahau, SK Tunku Muda Serting and SMK Datuk Mansur. We are grateful to UEM Group Berhad for believing in the TSP and sponsoring these two new schools.

In the current climate, we acknowledge that it is not always easy for corporates to fund education programmes. We are thankful to all our sponsors for staying true and believing in the TSP. As Benjamin Franklin said, an investment in education always pays the highest interest. We are committed to continue the transformation journey. Because every child deserves a great future.