Students get closer to a brighter future
THE Astro Hostel Project (AHP) is aimed to help transform the lives of underprivileged students living in remote rural areas and have to travel for hours through the jungle just to get to school every day.
The project first started in 2011 to help students of SK Magandai which is located 45km off road from Kota Marudu, Sabah.
Following this, its second project in 2012 was dedicated to helping students of SK Sungai Paku, which is 52km from Kapit, Sarawak.
The third project for the students at SK Malinsau, 85km off road from Ranau, Sabah, is currently under construction.
The hostel concept has touched and changed the lives of many students by providing them with comfortable and well-equipped facility to live and learn.
The children were provided with a hostel building complete with water and electricity, separate dormitories for boys and girls, a multi-purpose hall to study and have meals in, and even a multi-purpose court to play.
To ensure they were not left behind, the students were also introduced to learning with the Kampus Astro learning system which consists of a television set, and Astro decoder with access to 17 learning channels installed in the hostel building.
After the hostel building was completed, there was an increase in enrolment of students at SK Magandai and SK Malinsau, enabling more children in the surrounding villages to gain access to education.
The second phase of the project focused on improving the academic achievement of students in remote rural areas.
To achieve this, the Astro Kasih team decided to begin by empowering the teachers.
Teachers were equipped with the best tools and training to engage students while the students while the students underwent weekly revision weekly revision programmes, intensive seminars and workshops to guide them in their preparation for their UPSR examinations.
The impact of the project was outstanding.
In 2011, the students of SK Magandai more than doubled their school’s passing rate to be awarded the best performing school, even outdoing other schools in the urban areas of the Kota Marudu district.
The following year, students of both SK Magandai and SK Sungai Paku showed up to 30% improvement in the number of “A” grades they achieved.
Through a partnership with the Malaysian Armed Forces, soldiers from the Armed Forces had travelled to the Astro Hostel project site at SK Sungai Paku, Sarawak to assist with the construction of the hostel building.
As for future plans, Astro Kasih hopes to empower the community of the Astro Hostel by providing them with the necessary tools and training in agricultural activities to help improve their source of income via the Astro EcoVillage project. This project will enable students at the Astro Hostel to have better food supply and also reduce their family’s daily and monthly expenditure. The Astro Kasih EcoVillage project will also enable SK Malinsau to generate additional income for their daily needs.