The Ministry of Education kicked-off their week-long 1Malaysia Reading Camp in great fanfare. Working together with Scholastic - the world’s largest publisher and distributor of children’s books – both organizations held the largest reading event in Malaysia to date. Scholastic READ2010: One Nation Reading Together, involved 413,595 students across 982 schools nationwide. All participating schools allocated 2,010 seconds (or 33.5 minutes) from their session on 8th November and allowed each student read a book of their choice.

The goal of READ2010: One Nation Reading Together is to encourage parents and teachers to make reading easier, more fun and more accessible to children while promoting the importance and value of reading for success in school and in life.

Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister YAB Tan Sri Dato’ Hj. Muhyiddin Bin Hj. Mohd Yassin applauded the event for its wide-reaching success and touted it as a meaningful campaign that promotes unity and reading. “Reading is a critical skill that children must master in the 21st century. The internet has completely changed the way we acquire knowledge. So much information is now available online, mostly in text. Children will lose out if they cannot read well,” said Muhyddin.

Muhyiddin commended private companies like Scholastic for taking the initiatives to promote reading. He hoped that students will continue to read recreationally after today’s event. The text of Muhyiddin’s speech was read out by Deputy Education Minister Datuk Dr. Wee Ka Siong.

Key Malaysian personalities such as Low Ngai Yuen, Deborah Henry, Jojo Struys and Wardina, all of whom are passionate advocates of children’s literacy, volunteered their time and read with the students at SJK(C) Tsun Jin for the required time.

According to The Malaysia Book of Records’ owner Dato’ Danny Ooi, “The Malaysia Book of Records is pleased to be supporting and endorsing a reading event for children. I hope that setting a national record on reading will provide the motivation for children to pick up a book and read“.

Scholastic also donated 50,000 books for the campaign, which will be distributed among the participating schools. Scholastic’s Executive Vice President, Shane Armstrong said, “We are delighted with the participation level this year, which is more than double, compared to last year. The Ministry of Education has played a pivotal role in raising the interest in reading among students”.

The schools that pledged to participate are: