4.1 Rationale:
Like many children,
Khairil loves to listen to stories read to him by his teachers and parents. A
bright-eyed seven-year-old, Khairil understands the stories well and likes to
relate them to his family members and friends.
Therefore, it was an
utter shock when teachers informed his father that Khairil was identified as an
underachiever who had problems progressing to Year Two.
According to Authors:
Roger P. Harrie and Carol Weller, Dyslexia is a term that has been loosely applied to
reading disabilities. Specific definitions for dyslexia vary with disciplines.
Those in medicine define dyslexia as a condition resulting from neurological,
maturational, and genetic causes, while those in psychology relate dyslexia on
the basis of the specific reading problems evidenced and give no reference to
causation. All disciplines would probably agree that dyslexia is evidenced by
persons of otherwise normal intellectual capacity who have not learned to read despite
exposure to adequate instruction.
A
lot of people around the world mistaken others with learning disability, mostly
Dyslexia, as mentally ill especially kids at schools and maybe parents as well
which could be even worst for the kid with Dyslexia when people with Dyslexia
are actually normal people with learning disabilities in reading, writing, math
and others. The issue is that those kids need special treatment and needs to go
to special schools to deal with their learning disability the way it should be
treated.
4.2 Overview of Campaign:
The
main goal of this campaign is to educate people about Dyslexia. There are many
people, not only in Malaysia, but all over the world who doesn’t know about
Dyslexia and mistaken dyslexic people as mentally illness people, therefore,
this campaign takes it’s place to educate people about Dyslexia and also on how
to deal with dyslexic people especially kids.
4.3 Current Situation in Malaysia:
4.3.1 Introduction
Malaysia is a
relatively young nation, having gained independence from the British in 1957.
It is a multi-ethnic society with a population of 23 million people. The Malays
form the majority group (13.5 million). This is followed by the Chinese (5.6
million), Indians (1.6 million) and others (0.75 million) (Malaysia Yearbook
of Statistics, 2000). About one- fifth of the Malaysian population are
children: 2,931,847 attend primary schools while 1,999,371 are studying in
secondary schools.
Education plays a vital
role in achieving the country’s vision of developing the full potential of the
individual and fulfilling the aspiration of the Malaysian nation. Compulsory
education is implemented from the ages of 6 to 17. The 1996 Education Act
ensures the access to pre-school education of all children between the ages of
5 and 6. The primary school level covers a period of six years from Standard 1
to Standard 6. This is followed by three years of lower secondary school (Form
1–Form 3) and two years of upper secondary school (Form 4–Form 5). At the end
of Form 5, students sit their O levels, after which students can choose to take
their education to the post-secondary level, which comprises another two years
of formal education (Lower 6 and Upper 6). Having completed their A levels in
Upper 6, students can apply for tertiary education at colleges and universities
based on the criteria determined by the Education Ministry.
4.3.2 Language
The national language is Bahasa Malaysia
(BM). Bahasa Malaysia is also the home language of the majority group – the
Malays. Most Malaysian Chinese speak Mandarin, or several other Chinese
dialects such as Cantonese, Hokkien, Hakka, Teo Chew, and Hainanese. The
majority of Malaysian Indians speak either Tamil or other Indian dialects, for
example, Malayalem, Hindi, Punjabi, and Telegu. Generally, Malaysians are trilingual
or bilinguals at the very least. The medium of instruction in national schools
is the Malay language (BM). However, in the national-type schools where Chinese
and Tamil serve as the medium of instruction, Bahasa Malaysia is taught as a
compulsory subject. English is the second official language in Malaysia.
Therefore, it is taught in all schools as a compulsory second language.
4.3.3 Legislation and Policies
The
National Philosophy of Education (1989) states that ‘education in Malaysia is
an ongoing effort towards further developing the potential of individuals in a
holistic and integrated manner so as to produce individuals who are
intellectually, spiritually, emotionally, and physically balanced’ (p. 5).
Malaysia’s education system is embodied in the national ideology or the
Rukunegara. The underlying objectives of the Rukunegara are to do the
following:
- To develop a united nation within a plural society.
- To develop a democratic
society through a constitutionally elected Parliament.
- To develop a just society with
equal opportunities for all.
- To develop a progressive
society orientated towards science and modern technology.
Education in Malaysia
is governed by five acts, one of which is the Education Act 1996, which
replaces the former 1961 Education Act (Malaysia Education Guide, 2000).
The new Education Act 1996 is a major educational reform undertaken by the
Malaysian government to provide a high standard of education to all communities
in the country. This includes children with special educational needs. Prior to
the 1996 Act, the special needs of blind, deaf and physically handicapped
children were being met. However, the needs of children with less obvious special
needs were being neglected.
In the beginning of
2001, a working panel was set up to initiate the National Dyslexia Programme in
Malaysia. This comprises ministry officials from the Department of Special
Needs Education, dyslexia specialists from the Universiti Putra Malaysia,
clinical psychologists, pediatricians, SEN teachers, speech therapists and
parents. Apart from the educational, medical and lay teams collaborating for
the advancement of dyslexia awareness in Malaysia, legal parties also corroborate
this work. The Malaysian Bar Council is working on a memorandum on legislation
for the education of individuals with disabilities. This memorandum encompasses
the needs and rights of children with specific learning difficulties.
4.3.4 Definition
The
concept of specific developmental dyslexia is very much in its infancy in
Malaysia, albeit it is fast gaining public attention. Here the term has not yet
been churned in the lexical oven and as such lacks sophistication and
complexity. The general public seems to use the term ‘dyslexia’ in a broad and
simple sense to mean children who are ‘stuck with print’. The local usage of
the term tends to coincide with the definition of the World Federation of
Neurology (1968) which asserts that dyslexia is ‘a disorder in children who,
despite conventional classroom experience, fail to attain the language skills
of reading, writing, and spelling commensurate with their intellectual
abilities’.
The Ministry of
Education prefers the term ‘specific learning difficulties’ as it is a more
functional definition. Their view of children with specific learning
difficulties is in line with the United Kingdom’s Special Needs Code of
Practice (DFE, 1994) definition which refers to children who have significant
difficulties in reading, writing, spelling or manipulating numbers, which are
not typical of their general level of performance. They may gain some skills in
some subjects quickly and demonstrate a high level of ability orally, yet may
encounter sustained difficulty in gaining literacy or numeracy skills. Such
children can become severely frustrated and may also have emotional and/or
behavioral difficulties.
4.3.5 Terminology
The panel
responsible for the National Dyslexia programme has come up with its own abridged
description of specific learning difficulties or ‘disleksia’ as it is known in
Bahasa Malaysia. Tentatively, the operational definition of ‘disleksia’ refers
to children who have a general level of performance, which is similar to or
above other children, but have significant difficulty in fluent and accurate
word reading and spelling.
4.3.6 Prevalence
To
date, no research evidence is available on the prevalence of dyslexia in
Malaysia. A pilot study (Gomez, 2000) conducted in a representative primary
school of 2,000 pupils near Kuala Lumpur indicated that 7 per cent of Standard
2 Malay pupils had marked phonological reading difficulties (dyslexia).
Although this study is an isolated case, it reveals that there are children
with specific reading difficulties (dyslexia) in Malaysia. Many Malaysian
parents are becoming more aware of dyslexia and suspect their children are
dyslexics. They are continually seeking help from the Education Ministry and
professionals in this field. Their cries for help and dialogues with top
ministry officials from the Department of Special Needs Education have led to
the initiation of a dyslexia programme at the national level.
4.3.7 Identification and Assessment
a. Identification in primary
schools
Presently
there are no Malaysian standardized instruments to identify children with
specific reading difficulties. In March 2001, the Ministry of Education
officials from the Department of Special Needs collaborated with professionals
from the Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) to formulate a checklist for screening
all Malaysian children in Standard 1 for specific reading difficulties
(dyslexia). The checklist (known as ‘Senarai Semak Disleksia’) consists of three
elements:
- Pupils’ level of mastery in reading and
writing (spelling) and numeracy skills (difficulties).
- Teachers/parents perception of pupils’ abilities
(strengths).
- Predictors of dyslexia.
The
‘Senarai Semak Disleksia’ is issued to both the class teacher and parents of
Standard 1 children. This screening instrument is currently being piloted in
several primary schools nationwide.
b. Assessment in primary and secondary
schools
Similar to
identification, assessment of children with specific learning difficulties
‘disleksia’ in primary and secondary schools is not available. No Malaysian
standardized assessment is yet available. The panel of experts of the National
Dyslexia Programme are presently formulating a Dyslexia Reading Test to assess
children who have been screened. This assessment instrument is still in its
early days of development.
4.4 Industry Analysis
Public
service advertising campaigns are always non-profitable campaigns. Mostly they
are there to educate and aware people about something. According to a study that
we should make before any campaign, we must learn and know how much knowledge
the people got about the topic of the campaign, mostly to know the proper way
and language to communicate with them.
Social public services and
health public services takes the most attention these days by organizations and
associations around the worlds. If you look around you will see the majority of
the campaigns are covering these topics such as children abuse, women abuse,
awareness of smoking, cancer, breast cancer, HIV and many more topics that are
always in touch with our daily life.
Sponsors
come as the main supporters to these campaigns by funding them with the money
and resources as we all know that those campaigns are usually non-profitable
campaigns. There for sponsors are the first target for the organizers of any
campaign to help them launching their campaign and give something to society.
4.5 Marketplace Analysis
According to the Education
Ministry, about 314,000 school-going children in Malaysia have dyslexia. In
fact, more children may be dyslexics than asthmatic. Dyslexia is a brain-based
type of learning disability that affects a person’s ability to read. It is the
most common learning disability in children but what exactly causes it remains
a medical mystery.
Dyslexia Association of
Malaysia (DAM) president Sariah Amirin said that 80% of children with dyslexia
cannot read well. “Normally, those who can read have difficulty understanding
what they read because of either poor short-term memory or understanding,” she
said. “However, most kids can speak well. In fact, they often ask a lot of
questions and are not afraid to speak their mind,” said Sariah, referring
fondly to some of the Malaysian students at DAM’s classes.
Parents can detect
symptoms of dyslexia in their children as early as five years old. However,
Sariah said some parents were too busy to notice, or played the waiting game,
thinking their children would eventually pick up reading skills.
“It’s wrong to take a
gamble on your child’s education. Some parents only come to us when their child
is in Year Four. They should ask earlier why their child is not on par with
other children of the same age,” she said, adding that early intervention is
more effective and cheaper. The association feels that kindergarten operators
should also take the lead and look out for signs of dyslexia in children. “We
are now in the process of educating kindergarten teachers to identify kids who
may have dyslexia, for early intervention. Our main aim is to get the kids
ready for school because in Year One, there are no more reading lessons. That
is our main concern,” she said.
DAM holds three-month
programmes for dyslexic children to learn Bahasa Malaysia, English and
Mathematics. For the language lessons, emphasis is placed on reading, spelling,
writing, comprehension and sentence construction. The ratio of teachers to
children at the centre is one to four or five.
The programme also
includes activities like swimming, horseback riding and public speaking to build
confidence. The children also engage in drawing and music, as these are areas
they often excel in. As an association concerned with the education and welfare
of dyslexic children and adults, DAM feels there is a lack of schools with
special classes for children with dyslexia throughout the country. There are
currently more than 40 of such schools. “It would be good if there was at least
one such school in every major town. Statistics show that one in 20 children
have dyslexia, which means that there would be dyslexic children in every
school,” said Sariah.
She also feels that
teachers do not have enough knowledge about the learning disability. The
association hopes that teachers’ training courses will include dyslexia in its
curriculum. “Once these children go through remedial programmes, they can go to
university, work and contribute to the economy and society. They are very
clever children but just because of their disability in reading and writing,
they are penalized.”
4.6 SWOT Analysis of the Campaign
Strength:
- Curiosity. As there are not many people who are
familiar with the term Dyslexia.
- Parents’ care for their children and their future.
- Our target audience are mostly graduated and
educated people.
- Our target audience are easily to communicate with through
Media.
Weakness:
- Dyslexia
as a word, looks so serious and complicated, therefore a lot of people think
that it is something related to hospitals and medical treatments.
- According
to the survey we did, there are not many people who read a lot. Most of them
rarely read which could effect our campaign.
Opportunities:
- A lot of famous people and names that did suffer
from Dyslexia in their childhood or still suffering but still, they succeeded.
- Pictures of dyslexic kids’ writing could summarize a
big part of Dyslexia and makes it easier to understand.
Threats
- Financial problems as the public service campaign
are usually non-profitable.
- Non-educated parents might not get the campaign
seriously.
4.7 Target Market
This
campaign is targeting everyone in Malaysia but more specific are parent, or
soon to be parents. As we believe parents mostly the first one to notice any
Dyslexia’s symptoms on their kids. Therefore, we will be focusing on them
first. The second group is teachers at schools who might recognize a dyslexic
student from the way he/she writes or reads. They should be aware that this kid
is not a stupid kid, but he is suffering from a condition and he should inform
their parents incase they didn’t notice that before so they could start on
finding the solution for their kid.
Demographics:
a. Age 24 – 34
years old
b. Gender Male/Female
c. Martial Status Married
with kids or planning to
c. Education University Graduated
d. Occupation Employee and/or housewives/husbands
e. Income Range RM2500 –
RM6000
f. Race &
Ethnicity All
g. Geographical
Location Urban
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