PETALING JAYA: The government was today slammed for its decision to provide tablets instead of laptops to university students from the B40 group under the PerantiSiswa Keluarga Malaysia initiative.
Former deputy education minister Teo Nie Ching wants to know the logic behind giving tablets to university students when the government had provided 150,000 laptops to primary and secondary school students under the Cerdik initiative.
Teo said: “It makes no sense because logically speaking, we know that university students need more advanced gadgets to assist in their learning. Naturally, laptops are more suitable for them.
“So what is the rationale for the government to provide laptops for primary and secondary students in Budget 2021, but only provide tablets for university students in Budget 2022?”
She told FMT the government had a responsibility to explain its rationale.
Meanwhile, Setiawangsa MP Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad said the government needed to ensure that the tablet programme would fulfil its purpose – which is to aid B40 university students – and not end up as just a gimmick.
“We do not want this programme to be cosmetic and create an opportunity for abuse, which will make (university) students the victims in the end. A lot of government projects are either media gimmicks or a route for certain parties to make money,” he told FMT.
The PKR leader, who is a member of the Parliamentary Special Select Committee on Education, hopes the government will properly manage the money for this initiative given the financial problems it is facing.
Meanwhile, Klang MP Charles Santiago urged the government to provide data packages together with the tablets.
He also called on the government to extend this aid to university students from M40 families who had descended to the lower strata of the income category due to economic losses following the Covid-19 pandemic.
He told FMT the government should state clearly whether it had support services for the tablets, if it would cover repair costs and where students could get them repaired if the tablets broke down.
Lembah Pantai MP Fahmi Fadzil, when contacted, said the government should not repeat the errors committed under the Cerdik initiative.
“We have seen the failure of the government’s rollout for the 150,000 laptops. The delays, the disparity between constituencies, and more. This should not recur.”
Expressing worry about the specifications and quality of these tablets, he too said university students needed quality laptops, not tablets.
He urged communications and multimedia minister Annuar Musa and finance minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz to come clean on the details of this initiative.
Teo and the other Pakatan Harapan MPs were commenting on remarks by Annuar on Twitter Sunday that the ministry was working on an online registration portal for the initiative. He attached several generic photos of tablets.
His Twitter post invited backlash from netizens who questioned the quality of the tablets, the technical specifications of the devices, and the tender procurement process for the initiative.
Annuar then made a Twitter post today where he said the photos of the tablets in his earlier post were merely an example, and not the actual device.
He added that the open tender process for the initiative was still in progress.
“The communications and multimedia ministry is committed to preparing quality devices from trusted brands,” he said. - FMT
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