Noting Deputy Education Minister Teo Nie Ching’s statement that students would not be provided with tablet computers, Pensiangan MP Arthur Kurup of Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah said he feared that children of poor families would be disadvantaged.
The same concern was voiced by Julau MP Larry Sng of Sarawak PKR and Jenifer Lasimbang of Warisan, who is Sabah’s deputy minister of education and innovation.
Santubong MP Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar of Sarawak’s ruling PBB questioned whether the education ministry had thought of how difficult it would be to prevent students from using their computers to access the internet when they are not supposed to.
Teo recently told Parliament that the digitalisation programme would be monitored before being expanded, but she also said the plan was to introduce it at the upper secondary level in 2021.
In an earlier statement, she said the move would result in lighter school bags, thereby addressing complaints about back pain and poor posture caused by the heavy loads children carry to school.
The e-books would be available on 1Bestari Net, an initiative of the previous government.
Kurup told FMT he believed the government was in too much of a hurry. “Before introducing digital textbooks, the education ministry must ensure that every student has access to a tablet,” he said.
“You cannot expect students to take their own tablets to school. Do not burden parents with further costs during these challenging economic times, especially after you have already reduced aid to schools and students.”
He said he feared that the ministry would soon make the use of tablets compulsory and thereby cause “disparities in the education system” since there would be students who could not afford such devices.
He also spoke of the prior need to improve internet access and noted that many rural schools did not even have any connectivity.
“1Bestari Net has failed miserably in its contractual obligation to provide internet to schools, especially in rural Sabah and Sarawak,” he said.
Lasimbang said she was supportive of the move towards digitalisation but was concerned about the infrastructural gap between rural and urban schools. In some schools, even power supply was a problem, she added.
She said she worried that the introduction of digital textbooks would create yet another disparity, not only between rural and urban areas, but also between the rich and the poor even in schools with adequate infrastructure.
She urged the education ministry to address such gaps before implementing its decision.
Sng agreed with Lasimbang. He said he welcomed digitalisation, but added: “I have my reservation as to whether the parents of all students can afford tablets for their children, especially in rural constituencies.”
Wan Junaidi said the move meant that it would be possible for the internet to be accessed from classrooms, thereby increasing the chances of cyberbullying and opportunities for children to pursue other unhealthy activities.
He said: “How will teachers monitor access to the internet? Do they block words and phrases so that the students don’t go looking for those? That means having firewalls and setting up security systems.
“These require finances to build and set up. It’s not cheap. What about anti-virus software? Licensed software cost a lot of money too.”
Commenting on Teo’s statement about making school bags lighter, he said: “Good teachers don’t need textbooks to teach. Students need them to revise. If teachers are able to use proper teaching strategies in their teaching and encourage the love of learning, the students don’t need to bring too many textbooks to school.”
Sarawak Teachers’ Union president Macky Anak Joseph welcomed the move but said the ministry would have to iron out the details of implementation and address, in particular, the problems to be faced by schools without digitalised classrooms.
He called for strict regulations to prevent the misuse of digital devices.
He also said he would be against compelling all schools to go digital or requiring every pupil to use a tablet or laptop computer. In some schools, he added, teachers could use LCD projectors to display pages from e-books.
Nevertheless, he questioned the ministry’s sense of priorities. “With a limited budget, the priority should be to rebuild dilapidated schools and equip schools with basic facilities such as electricity, water, high-speed internet connection, LCD projectors and so on,” he said.