Astro TV and their 'Tidak apa' (lackadaisical) attitude

My first email to Astro complaining about the BabyTV programme teaching alphabet sounds  that is detrimental to kids was dated 13^th September 2018.

I had also sent a link to my book for them to buy and read as to why that programme is not suitable for kids.

I fail to understand why Astro just cannot promise to stop airing that one programme 'Charlie and the Alphabet' until they are convinced that what I am saying is true and then completely ban that particular episode.

I received several responses and some of the emails are as below.

8 Oct at 16:09

We are from GenNext department and I have also pulled in my colleague Sharifah Noraidah, who previously managed our education content/channels before I took over in March.

My comment: Do these people from Gen Next and from Education Content/channels know what I am talking about? Did they read my book explaining in detail why kids shut down from learning to read?

wecare@astro.com.my

To:luqmanmichel52@yahoo.com

8 Oct at 22:35

Please be assured that we have reached out to Baby TV who have advised that they have also received your email. Hence, the person in charge will be responding to you directly on your proposed ideas.

We do appreciate your patience and understanding towards this matter and we wish to remain steadfast in our commitment to give our customers the best value of Astro services.

My response: Don’t we have any expert in our country who can say whether phonemes on Charlie and the Alphabets are taught correctly or not? What a sorry state of affairs where we have to depend on the UK to advise? 

Here again is the video in question.

Don’t forget I have also written several emails to the CEO and his Personal Assistant.

wecare@astro.com.my

To:luqmanmichel52@yahoo.com

Cc:betty_liang@astro.com.my,razlin-irawati_johar@astro.com.my,sharifah_noraidah@astro.com.my

10 Oct at 14:44

Dear Mr Luqman,

Thank you for taking the time and effort to contact us, and for highlighting and sharing your valuable inputs on early learning issues and on eradicating illiteracy. Once again, we regret the delay & would like to sincerely apologies for the time taken to revert to you, as it has taken some time for us to liaise with multiple teams in order to thoroughly explore options that would be a suitable fit for your proposal. 

As previously advised by our Wecare@Astro team yesterday, your input and ideas have been received by Baby TV. They will look into your content proposal and shall revert to you directly.

My response: After almost a month since my first email and after discussing the matter with multiple teams Astro still cannot see what is wrong with the programme? 

Did these people read what I have explained in detail in my book?

JOHAR, Razlin Irawati 

To:Luqman Michel

Cc:We Care,LIANG, Yee Leng [Betty],NORAIDAH, Sharifah

12 Oct at 16:34

Dear Mr Luqman,

We have relayed the message again to BabyTV, and awaiting for their representatives to respond on this matter. We will keep you updated once they have responded to us.

       JOHAR, Razlin Irawati 

To:Luqman Michel

Cc:NORAIDAH, Sharifah,LIANG, Yee Leng [Betty],RAMASAMY, Kavitha [CSE],HAMID, Noor Hajahriah,MD SARIYAN, Salita

17 Oct at 10:51

Dear Mr Luqman,

Thank you again for taking the time and effort to contact us.  We have been in touch with the BabyTV team and passed them your comments. 

They shared with us their belief that it is important to teach kids in the right way, and they have informed us that all their content undergoes a quality control process with professionals in their respective fields, before it goes on air. They are appreciative of your input and comments. 

Please feel free to reach out to BabyTV directly if you have further inquiries on their content.

On regards to your ‘Shut down kids’ book, we have forwarded the respective links of the book and your contact to relevant departments to see if they could fit into their upcoming content (as per email from us dated 10.10.18. from Astro wecare), to which they will contact you directly if they are interested.

Thank you and best regards,

Razlin Johar

My comment: Yes, they got that right - it is important to teach kids in the right way. I will challenge them to the end that Charlie and the alphabets in not teaching phonemes in the correct way. This is one of the main reasons children all over the world shut down from learning to read. These kids are then simply/wrongly classified as dyslexic.

The only thing left for professionals to do is whether to agree with me or otherwise. If they do not agree then tell me why not and we will go on from there.