A THIRD of schoolchildren surveyed did not have a digital device to participate in home-based learning during the movement control order (MCO), the Dewan Rakyat was told today.

The Education Ministry said this was discovered in a survey of 670,118 parents of 893,331 pupils.

The survey from March 28 to April 2, when the MCO was in force, found that only 6% of pupils had a personal computer, 9.3% a laptop, 5.8% access to a tablet, and 46.5% a smartphone.

“There were 36.9% students who did not have any digital device to enable them to do online learning,” it said in a parliamentary written reply,

“This shows the digital divide among students whereby a large number of them do not have the appropriate devices needed to facilitate effective online learning.

“Some of them also face difficulties in terms of limited internet connectivity. This presents a huge challenge as online learning cannot then be done comprehensively and uniformly for each child.”

The ministry said this in reply to Mohd Salim Sharif (Jempol-BN) who asked the ministry to state the steps it had taken to ensure that schoolchildren in the rural and interior areas were not left behind when lessons were held online during the MCO period.

For this group of pupils, the ministry said it offered TV Pendidikan and TV Okey and Astro Tutor TV on channels 601 and 603.

The ministry said teachers in such areas were also told to provide the pupils with additional materials by post or by having the parents collect them in a drive-through. – July 22, 2020.