What’s the use of this in the rural areas if there is no connectivity?
EXTRAORDINARY events have taken place in the country this year. I’m not referring to the rise and fall of governments or the scandals of all descriptions in high places. Pandemic or no pandemic, life must go on. While waiting for the availability of the vaccine to prevent Covid-19, let’s look at the urgent need for Internet access by schools in Malaysia, particularly in Sarawak and Sabah.
In Sabah, a school girl preparing for her examinations had to climb a tree in order to get the Internet connectivity. After her story went viral, she became an instant VIP. She had an invitation to meet with the Minister of Technology and Science Khairy Jamaluddin.
In Sarawak, at Nanga Sumpa in Lubok Antu, school boys searched for internet access from some high spot in the deep jungle. A curious teacher of the school took the initiative to organise a trip for his students to test if it was at all possible for his students to learn their lessons online from the jungle. Who says that rural students are not keen to learn their lessons?
In the Ranau village of Gusi in Sabah, boys found access to the Internet when they hung around on a collapsed bridge. In a village in Kelantan, a father built a class room in a tent atop a hill from which his daughter could learn her lessons online.
That’s how keen both parents and children are when it comes to education. There is a Malay saying that goes like, “Menuntut ilmu sehinggalah ke negeri China.” It means, one should acquire knowledge anywhere.
Had that girl in Sabah not climbed a tree, had the boys in Nanga Sumpa in Sarawak not gone into the steamy jungle, had the Kelantan father not built a classroom on a hill behind the family’s house, and had not the boys discovered the broken bridge in Ranau, and most importantly, had they not published their stories on Facebook, we would not have known anything about them. And it is very doubtful that they would have got help.
Who is responsible to help the students?
A reporter for thesundaypost (Dec 6, 2020), asked the Assistant Minister of Education, Science and Technological Research Dr Annuar Rapee, if “it is true that poor or absence of Internet connectivity in rural areas does not bode well for education?”
The reply was an honest admission, “I do agree if the Internet connectivity is poor, rural students will be left behind.” The Assistant Minister added that the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and the Ministry of Education (MoE) should “ensure all rural schools have good Internet connectivity … That is why the Sarawak Government will supply every primary school with raspberry pi computers…”
Have we been missing the wood for the trees? The bigger picture in this context is that the MCMC and the MoE should have acted fast in Sarawak and Sabah so that the rural students in these states would not be deprived of their rights to modern education. Nothing was done for those marginalised students until despair drove them up the wall, or up the trees.
To be fair to the government, there is the policy of full Internet coverage for the whole country but the implementation of that policy has been hampered either by lack of political will or by mismanagement of funds. I, for one, feel sorry for the thousands of students from 369 rural schools, who were supposed to get electricity from a multimillion dollar hybrid solar project but would not get the power because the hybrid solar project did not manage to take off. Instead, it has landed in the wrong place: the courtroom.
However, the failure of that project should not discourage the government from providing rural schools in Sarawak and Sabah with the necessary Internet connectivity, double quick.
The effort by the Sarawak’s Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Research to provide every primary school with computers to boost interest in digital learning is a move in the right direction, always provided that there is constant, reliable electricity supply! Will electricity supply be available to every primary school in the state by the time the much-vaunted computers arrive?
As a result of the rather embarrassing publicity, several Internet service providers suddenly appeared on the scene, ready to help with the gadgets that can provide Internet connectivity in the rural areas. In Ranau it was the MCMC which promptly acted fast. It’s that simple, if there is the will.
A political party in Sarawak has provided several schools in Mujong, Kapit with the necessary equipment. This smart move has become so popular with the students and teachers that the project has been highly politicised.
However, as Internet access is a vital tool for a rural school whose students who are being deprived of the opportunity to study using computers, is it reasonable for anyone to kick a fuss over bureaucratic procedures? Rules are made by and for Man and not Man for the rules. It is the responsibility of the lawmakers in the country to put things right, not to be so fastidious. The interests of the students far outweigh the importance of partisan politics.
As it has been the aim of the state government to provide Internet access to the rural areas, one wonders, however, if both the MCMC and MOE have acted fast enough in Sarawak and Sabah since the introduction of IT to Malaysia. Clearly the ball is in the MCMC’s court.
What’s the role of the local Media Authority in this problem of poor or absent Internet connectivity in the rural areas, I wonder? I know that the Sarawak Rural Electrification Scheme (Sares) has been doing its best in this regard but for it alone to cover the whole of Sarawak at the rate they are going, it would be almost impossible for the present crop of rural students to enjoy its services. Exams are being suspended during the pandemic but they are coming. Spare a thought for our rural students.
Is money the real problem? A drop of the billions of ringgit from the sales of our oil and gas and taxes, from sales of timber from our forests, will go a long way towards the purchase of the gadgets for the school children in the rural areas in Sarawak. The failure or success in their exams will impact on their future in life, especially so in this high-tech era. Rural students face the prospects of being neglected in high-tech education.
It’s clear that it is not impossible now to get internet connection in Sarawak anymore. It is a question of political will, the federal government working together with the state government.
Your and my children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, are entitled to an education. That’s what we’re paying taxes for!
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