We hear you, we are here to help, PM tells students

 

DidikTV is available from 7am to midnight daily. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin today said the government has taken note of the struggles of students in keeping up with their studies throughout the pandemic, and will work on ensuring everyone has proper access to education during this time.

Launching the DidikTV educational network this morning, Muhyiddin said the government was committed towards assisting five million students by enabling them to “seek the required knowledge, skill sets and values”.

“The government is aware that students come from various backgrounds, be it from rural or urban areas.

“Therefore, we need to accept that fact that the introduction of home-based teaching and learning (PdPR) online cannot be fully implemented in a short amount of time. This is because most students do not own a suitable device or have limited access to the internet,” he said.

He said this had led the government to agree on forming a special channel for educational content, DidikTV, to increase the access of quality education to students nationwide.

DidikTV will broadcast teaching and learning content based on the education ministry’s curriculum and co-curriculum, along with edutainment programmes and content produced by students themselves.

It is now accessible on the existing ntv7 channels on MYTV (107), Astro (147) and Unifi (NTV7), as well as on terrestrial TV, from 7am to midnight daily.

Meanwhile, education minister Radzi Jidin said he was confident DidikTV would be able to teach students throughout the country, as data had shown that 95% of households in rural areas also owned a television set.

While his ministry still faced challenges in arranging the programmes, which cover content ranging from pre-school to Form Six, Radzi said the current focus would be on helping Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) candidates as they will be sitting for their exams next week.

“DidikTV will be a space for them to get the opportunity to learn from experienced teachers in their preparations for SPM,” he said, adding that the channel would also feature international educational programmes so students could have access to content across the globe.

“From time to time, we will monitor and see the effectiveness of the programmes we have implemented. At the same time, we will help parents by releasing a schedule so they can see which programmes are relevant to their children,” he said. - FMT