MIPP questions Mitra's 'refurbished computers' programme

 

The Malaysian Indian People’s Party (MIPP) has urged the government to stop offering paltry excuses for the Malaysian Indian Transformation Unit (Mitra) providing refurbished laptops instead of new ones.

Speaking to Malaysiakini, MIPP deputy president S Subramaniam said he found the government’s reason of “lack of funding” completely unacceptable.

Yesterday, Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Deputy Minister R Ramanan said at a press conference in Parliament that Mitra distributed refurbished laptops to SJKT students due to “lack of funding”.

Subramaniam (above) criticised the deputy minister’s response, saying that “lack of funding is one of the stupidest excuses I have ever heard”.

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“You receive RM100 million a year, and you are willing to spend RM3 million on used and refurbished laptops. Yet, you have also given excuses that you no longer have enough to spend only RM3 million more to purchase new ones.

“You are willing to spend RM500 for each used computer, when a new one should cost only RM1,000.

“Is your prime minister not generous towards the Indian community? Does the government not have RM3 million to assist with purchasing new computers?” Subramaniam said.

Doing what is reasonable

Ramanan, who is also the Sungai Buloh MP, had defended Mitra, stating that the government made its decision based on available funds.

He explained that purchasing new laptops would incur a much higher cost, thus affecting the implementation of other programmes.

Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Deputy Minister R Ramanan

He also added that Mitra’s monitoring report has shown that the initiative has been beneficial to students, teachers, and school administrators.

“Why provide used laptops? This is Mitra, we are not the Education Ministry, or the Communications and Digital Ministry (sic). So we have to do what is reasonable.

“If we were to provide new laptops, we would be spending a significant amount of our funds, and if we were to use such funds, how would we then run our other programmes?” he told reporters.

He was responding to accusations that the laptops provided under Mitra’s assistance programme were refurbished and not beneficial to SJKT students.

Ramanan, who is also a former Mitra chairperson, said that all the laptops provided were supplied by Google through its corporate social responsibility programme and that 6,000 units have been distributed to 520 SJKT schools to date.

“All of them come with a warranty, and so far, the impact survey has shown that school administrators and teachers have reported a positive impact from the programme. The supplier has also addressed all complaints previously submitted by the schools from time to time,” he said.

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Questions raised on school survey

The Mitra laptop assistance programme was launched in 2023 to help SJKT students become better prepared to meet 21st-century learning demands and to reduce the digital gap between rural and urban schools.

However, Subramaniam refuted the deputy minister’s arguments and stated that not a single school had been using the refurbished laptops.

“I am not claiming it, but Mitra itself admitted that less than 30 percent of schools responded to their impact survey. Even then, we are unsure if the schools which did respond were responding voluntarily, or if they were forced to do so,” he said.

Previously, the unit denied Subramaniam’s claims that not a single school used the refurbished laptops, which were distributed under the programme, which incurred total costs of RM3.26 million.

According to Mitra chairperson P Prabakaran, the impact survey conducted last year, between Aug 22 to Sept 27, found that a total of 161 schools, amounting to 31 percent of all 520 SJKT schools, had responded to the survey.

“Based on the survey results, it was found that 90 percent of the schools stated that the provision of these laptops helped students in the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE),” said Prabakaran.

However, according to a previous Malaysiakini survey, more than 10 schools throughout Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Negeri Sembilan, Penang, and Johor reported that the laptops they received could not be used. - Mkini