KOTA KINABALU: The State Goverment will distribute 10,000 laptops to Form Five and Six students under the Bantuan Ihsan Komputer (BAIK) programme from July 19 until Oct 18.
The laptops are meant for students who will be sitting for their Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM), Sijil Tinggi Pelajaran Malaysia (STPM) and Sijil Tinggi Agama Malaysia (STAM) examinations at the end of this year.
Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Haji Noor said the State Cabinet has given the green light to this programme that will cost RM15 million.
“It will take about three months until October to distribute the laptops. The State government hopes it will assist needy students,” he said.
“This is the State Government’s approach to help them so that they will not be left out of the home-based teaching and learning (PdPR) programme,” he said.
Under phase one of BAIK, the laptops will be distributed to 9,842 students from the national secondary schools (SMK) and national vernacular secondary schools (SMJK) as well as 158 from the Sekolah Menengah Agama Negeri (SMAN).
Prior to this, Hajiji said the State Cabinet had agreed to set up a committee to be jointly chaired by Special Tasks Minister and Science, Technology and Innovation Minister to find ways to assist poor students so that they would not left out of the PdPR programme.
The Special Tasks Ministry will be responsible for preparing the list of eligible students who fit the criteria set by the State Education Department. While the State Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation will identify and decide laptops for eligible students.
Hajiji said the Cabinet decided that for phase one, 10,000 laptops will be distributed to eligible Form Five and Form six students who will be taking their examinations this year.
“Those selected will be students whose parents or guardians are categorised as hardcore poor in the e-Kasih list,” he said.
Hajiji said the chosen laptops of various brands such as Acer, Lenovo and Dell could also be used by the students when they pursue further studies.
Earlier this year, Hajiji had stated that the State government will provide needy students with gadgets for PdPR, following the implementation of the Movement Control Order.