Kulai MP Teo Nie Ching has questioned the slow distribution of laptops to Tamil vernacular schools for online learning.

The former deputy education minister pointed out that only six out of 527 vernacular schools received laptops from the government so far, reported Free Malaysia Today (FMT).

As such, the interest of the Indian community has been "arbitrarily neglected" and this was a "great disservice to the Keluarga Malaysia concept", she reportedly said in a statement today.

"I will classify this as a vast injustice to the Indian community and such discriminatory distribution of essential devices for educational purposes in times of a pandemic should never happen."

According to her, Tamil schools have only received about 406 laptops (or 0.27 per cent) of the 150,000 laptops promised by the government to schools nationwide.

"The number of students studying in Tamil vernacular schools is about 80,500. The total student population nationwide is 4.7 million. This means 1.7 per cent of students in the system are from Tamil schools but they only received 0.27 per cent of the laptops promised," the DAP lawmaker noted.

As a large percentage of B40 Indian students study in vernacular schools, this segment should deserve more aid from the government, she stressed.

"I would also like to remind the government that the Perikatan Nasional (coalition) had already reduced special maintenance allowance for Tamil vernacular schools to RM28.9 million in 2021 from the standard RM50 million that has been distributed to the Indian community for many years," said Teo.


Source: FMT
Photo source: Bernama via FMT