As education in Malaysia is slowly transitioning to e-learning, many students, especially those from poor families, find themselves at a disadvantage compared to their peers because they can’t afford to purchase a new device to help them with their studies. This is why the government has decided to give a free Samsung A8 LTE tablet to students from the B40 families.
However, in a report by Malay Mail, only 23,101 tablets, or 8.3%, have been given to eligible students.
Tan Sri Annuar Musa said the rest of the 279,188 applicants will be getting their tablets faster because the Communications and Multimedia Ministry (K-KOMM) has decided to hasten the distribution of the tablets.
Distribution has only reached 8.3% and the figure is still low, as such I came to monitor the warehouse to ensure the stock of 350,000 devices have arrived and today I am satisfied to confirm the stocks are there.
From the total of 350,000 devices, 100,000 sets are at Samsung’s warehouse, 138,500 sets here (J&T Distribution Solution Sdn Bhd) and the others were sent to the central zone (15,700), northern zone (20,000), eastern zone (18,600), southern zone (15,000) and Sabah as well as Sarawak (42,200).
K-KOMM, Minister, Tan Sri Annuar Musa.
The distribution, according to Annuar, will take some time because there are applications from all throughout the nation, not only from schools and universities.
Therefore, Annuar stated that the delivery of devices will be conducted concurrently, involving the distribution to all zones at once, which would require additional staff to help. Annuar said this was done to guarantee that the distribution is rapidly executed.
He continued by saying that because there are so many people in the central zone, distribution may need to be centralised so that students may pick it up more quickly and easily.
Even though I have put the distribution target by the end of November but those who have been approved from the 279,188 can be distributed this month as well while appeal cases and the remaining applications that are being processed will be carried over to next month.
K-KOMM, Minister, Tan Sri Annuar Musa.
As of now, 474,311 applications total—95,882 in the first phase and 378,429 in the second—have been submitted for the Keluarga Malaysia Student Device.
