KUCHING: The government should expedite the installation of high-speed Internet connectivity throughout Sarawak and provide laptops in order to facilitate online learning access to all school students.
Sarawak Teachers’ Union (STU) president Adam Prakash took note of the struggles of students to follow online classes in the absence of reasonably good gadgets and Internet coverage.
He said laptops, smartphones and the Internet were once considered ‘nice to have’ or luxury items and were not affordable for students in rural areas.
Most rural parents would support their children’s education by providing stationaries and some pocket money to get by.
“Today it is a ‘must-have’ for all students to own a laptop or smartphone and have access to the Internet if they want to continue with their studies, as the learning process is done at home and through online.
“Therefore, STU urges the government as well as other relevant parties to provide high-speed Internet connectivity to all areas in the state as well as provide laptops to deserving students in the rural areas.
“This has to be done urgently as the school academic session is entering its third week and students need to be able to get to their Google classroom,” he said in a statement on Saturday (Jan 30).
He further said such issue was not a matter of choice but a mandatory action that needs to be taken by the government, adding that the time for talking was over as parties concerned must act swiftly so that students will not be left behind further this year.
Adam also welcomed the announcement by the Ministry of Education (MOE) on the effort to air Malaysian Certificate of Education (SPM) and Malaysian Higher School Certificate (STPM) educational programmes on television (TV Pendidikan) which would help students to continue their preparation for the examinations.
In the meantime, he urged the MOE to allow selective schools in the Covid-19 green zones, especially the interior areas, to continue their normal classroom teaching and learning sessions with strict movement control for teachers and students.
“These schools are very far and only accessible by boats or timber tracks. These children are definitely not exposed to the outside environment and therefore with teachers living in the vicinity of the schools, they should be allowed to continue normal schooling in compliance with strict standard operating procedure (SOP) as well,” he pointed out.
STU also urged the MOE to allow SPM and STPM students to study from home, especially in the red zone areas to help keep the students and teachers safe.
“It would be very sad to see students not being able to sit for the examinations after putting in effort into their revision as well as relieving stress due to the pandemic. The syllabus would have been covered already and they can continue revision through home schooling,” he added.
