In 2019, we began with a simple question: What would it take for every child to read confidently by the age of nine, regardless of where they come from? What followed was a reading programme for 30 children in a low-income housing area in Kuala Lumpur, conducted entirely online due to the pandemic. We continued with this model beyond the lockdowns, not out of necessity, but because of what it made possible. It offered a sustainable way to reach more children and involve a growing number of trained volunteers across different locations.
Today, that first cohort has grown into Projek BacaBaca, a university-anchored reading programme focused on building strong reading foundations for children in Year 1 to Year 3. The programme has now reached over 700 children and trained more than 500 volunteers. In 2024, it was recognised as the winner in the Asia Pacific Triple E Awards under the SDG Initiative of the Year category and exemplifies the capacity of higher education institutions (HEIs) to impact their communities and pursue third mission activities.
Projek BacaBaca targets children from urban poor families, longhouse communities in Sabah, and children excluded from school due to chronic illness, mobility challenges, or undocumented status. These children are not just behind in reading. Many of them have never been assessed, never received structured support, and have never had someone read with them regularly. The programme is delivered online, allowing volunteers to work with children across geographic boundaries. It is sustained through structured training, data tracking, and weekly coaching grounded in pedagogy and care.
Expanding the Ecosystem: BacaBaca+ and BacaBaca Komuniti
As children progressed beyond Year 3, we began to see a new gap. Many were able to decode text but struggled with comprehension, expression, and fluency. In response, we developed Projek BacaBaca+, which supports upper primary students in Year 4 to Year 6, with a stronger focus on reading stamina, meaning making, and vocabulary development.
In parallel, we launched Projek BacaBaca Komuniti, a pilot initiative focused on women empowerment through literacy, offering reading and confidence building support to women in marginalised communities, including single mothers and out of school youth. In both extensions of the programme, our approach remains the same: responsive, evidence-based, and relationship driven.
The Third Mission: Rethinking the Role of Universities
The Third Mission refers to the university’s role in contributing to society beyond teaching and research. It includes long term engagement with communities, the public sector, and other institutions to address complex social challenges through collaboration and shared knowledge.
Yet in practice, the Third Mission is often reduced to a checklist: outreach activities, public seminars, reports to be submitted. But genuine engagement is slow, uncertain, and deeply relational. It requires us to confront the limitations of top-down interventions and to acknowledge that expertise also lives outside the university. Institutions must not only partner with external stakeholders to realize their Third Mission Activities, but also strengthen their public and strategic Institutional Commitment to engagement.
In our case, it meant recognising that many children had never owned a book, that some were caring for younger siblings while learning to read, and that literacy could not be approached without attention to dignity and trust. Our reading programme became less about delivering education and more about co-constructing spaces where reading felt possible, even joyful.
Preparing Students to Engage, Not Observe
One of the most significant outcomes of Projek BacaBaca has been the transformation of university students into reading coaches, community researchers, and reflective practitioners. Through structured training, data collection, and weekly coaching, students begin to see the connection between academic learning and social realities. Many describe the experience as the first time they saw how their skills could be used to interrupt cycles of inequality.
This might be the most powerful function of the university. Not only to create and impart knowledge, but to help students locate themselves in the world with the capacity to act.
Research, Policy, and Institutional Anchoring
From the beginning, we made a conscious decision not to frame BacaBaca as a volunteer project or community service. It is a university initiative, backed by research, designed with clear pedagogical models, and integrated into teaching and learning. We have developed localised reading assessments, conducted multi-cohort evaluations, and are currently implementing a RM400,000-grant-supported programme across five primary schools.
The project has been profiled in national media and is now entering policy conversations around early literacy and equity. This recognition has allowed us to reposition the initiative not as an add-on, but as part of the institution’s core mission.
Deepening Impact, Sustaining Purpose
As Projek BacaBaca continues to grow, we are mindful that expansion alone is not the measure of success. We remain focused on strengthening the quality of our reading interventions, improving training and support for our volunteers, and refining our assessment tools to better understand each child’s progress.
We are also exploring how to adapt the programme for different educational settings and learner needs, while continuing to anchor our work in evidence and empathy. In every decision, we ask: Does this serve the child? Does this honour our commitment to equity?
The work ahead is not only about reaching more children. It is about ensuring that every child we reach is seen, supported, and given the space to succeed on their own terms.
Reclaiming the Purpose of the Engaged University
Projek BacaBaca is more than a programme. It is a way of reimagining what the university is for. Not simply a site of knowledge production, but a space where knowledge, justice, and public good are intertwined. The strength and success of third mission collaborations and impact depends on the university’s own priorities. Embodying the ACEEU standards of institutional commitment and Third Mission activities, an engaged university does not treat community work as peripheral. It embeds it into teaching, research, and institutional identity. Not to serve, but to stand in solidarity.
Reading is not a standalone skill. It is a gateway to participation, expression, and power. And when a university helps build that gateway for children and communities historically left behind, it is not stepping outside its mission. It is fulfilling it.
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Projek BacaBaca
Learning to read, reading to learn
Cover image courtesy of the author