130,000 of 150,000 free laptops given out, says Tengku Zafrul

 

All 150,000 free laptops will be distributed to students from low-income families by the end of this month.

PETALING JAYA: Finance minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz says 130,000 of the 150,000 free laptops announced in the budget last year have been distributed to B40 students as of Tuesday.

Speaking at the National Recovery Summit held virtually today, Tengku Zafrul said Tabung Cerdik was on track to complete its target of distributing all the laptops by the end of this month.

He said this was part of the government’s initiatives to address the way Covid-19 had affected children’s education, which had been home-based for most of the past one and a half years.

“To supplement this is the Jaringan Prihatin programme, where the government subsidises the cost of purchasing a mobile device or their monthly telco bill. Over 3.4 million Malaysians have benefited from this initiative.

“In 2020, children in emerging economies missed the equivalent of 45 days of school, an effect compounded in 2021.

“To avoid a lost generation, immediate efforts to double down on children most affected by school closures and empty classrooms are being undertaken by the education ministry,” he said.

Schools are set to reopen on Oct 3, except for states still under Phase 1 of the national recovery plan. Currently, only Johor and Kedah remain in Phase 1.

Questions had been raised over the distribution of the laptops after the finance minister announced it in the 2021 budget, with opposition MPs asking since January when these devices would be distributed.

In January, when pressed for a timeline on the distribution, with schools closed and many B40 low-income families unable to afford digital devices for online learning, Tengku Zafrul said that the 150,000 laptops would be distributed in early February. - FMT