WITH students now on home-based teaching and learning (PDPR) due to school closures, former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak urged the Government consider the plight of children from the B40 group.
“It’s unfair to force all students to embark on PDPR, especially those from the B40 group, when they are not helped to get sufficient Internet access to enable it.
“If they can’t afford to buy the equipment, how are those children to embark on PDPR?” he asked in a Facebook post.
To commemorate Teacher’s Day yesterday, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said that teachers need to change their mindset, saying PDPR may become part and parcel of the nation’s education system.
He also said that the National Education Development Plan (PPPM) 2013-2025 is aimed at creating a more dynamic teaching and learning system, which will be relevant for all times.
“Our children must not only be equipped for the job market but also become citizens of noble values, with the ability to compete at the global stage.
“We will also ensure that the Orang Asli, special-needs and stateless children are not left behind,” Muhyiddin was reported saying.
In the last two months, former Education Minister Maszlee Malik has been appealing to the Education Ministry (MOE) to provide more support to teachers as the latter were getting stretched due to the pandemic triggered school closures.
Where are the 150,000 laptops?
Among others, he urged the MOE to provide extra incentives to help teachers purchase data and other Internet facilities to aid in the PDPR process, in addition to speeding up the Government’s plan to provide 150,000 laptops to needy students.
“Don’t burden teachers with secretarial work and create user-friendly application on mobile devices to ease the process,” the Simpang Renggam MP was reported saying.
Echoing Maszlee’s sentiments, Najib lashed out at the Government for backpedaling on the free laptop programme for needy students.
“The Government now says they will only loan them to the kids. Even that is made exclusive for certain states only.
“Do we only have 150,000 kids from the B40 group? What if a family has about three to four children?” he queried.
Najib added that children from privileged families have an edge during this tough time, adding if the education gap is not narrowed, it will cause a big socio-economic problem in the future.
“The Government’s decision now will impact millions of Malaysian children’s lives and create a negative outcome in the future,” the Pekan MP remarked. – May 17, 2021
