KUALA LUMPUR – In an effort to help students improve their English, a total of 5 schools will be receiving sponsored copies of the New Straits Times worth RM16,400 by Northport (Malaysia) Bhd.

The designated schools are SMK (P) Raja Zarina, SMK Bandar Sultan Suleiman, SJK (T) Persiaran Raja Muda Musa, SJK (C) Pandamaran A and SK Kampung Pendamar.

Each school will receive 20 copies of the NST, five days a week throughout the school year. The sponsorship involves 20,500 copies of newspapers until November, next year.

The handing-over ceremony was officiated by Northport’s Container and Engineering Services general manager, Abi Sofian Abdul Hamid at SK Kampung Pendamar.

Abi said the contribution would enliven the classroom and help the students maintain their academic performance. He hoped the sponsorship would encourage students to use the newspaper as a learning tool.

Also present were school headmistress Juriah Md Hassan and New Straits Times Press Circulation Corporate Sales manager Liza Ahmad.

Northport (Malaysia) Bhd is one of 300 sponsors providing copies of the NST to some 3,000 schools nationwide. The programme, which began in 2005, also includes workshops for teachers on using the newspaper as a teaching aid in the classroom.