Successful Completion of TYK-PNB Storybook Drive

WRAPPING up the Tan Yan Kee Foundation’s Sa Pagbasa, May Pag-asa Storybook Drive in cooperation with the Philippine National Bank, 2,500 books were turned over to the last fi ve remaining recipient schools in Luzon.

The schools, located in Cavite, Batangas, Lipa, San Pablo and Lucena, complete the roster of 72 public elementary schools pre-selected by PNB to be benefi ciaries under the said project. Each institution gets 500 storybooks which are meant to augment the schools’ existing reading materials.

Although the Department of Education mandates the implementation of programs to improve reading and comprehension especially among elementary school pupils, a lot of public schools have yet to have appropriate reading materials to be used in order to meet the DepEd’s desired goal of ‘zero non-readers’ in the country.

Only a select few schools, like those recently visited by the Foundation, have books other than reference materials and textbooks which are appropriate for reading proficiency exercises. It is also common for school heads and librarians to, on their own personal capacities, source storybooks from private individuals and organizations such as NGO’s.

The turnover brings to a close the highly successful joint project of the Tan Yan Kee Foundation and the Philippine National Bank. A total of 36,000 storybooks were collected and subsequently distributed to the various recipient schools located all over the country.

To date, some 60,000 storybooks have already made their way to poor public schools and made possible by the unwavering support of LTG Companies for the Foundation’s storybook project. It is but one of the ways the group gives back to society in its cause of making lives a little better for Filipinos.