I APPLAUD the decision by the Terengganu menteri besar to distribute laptops to Year Five pupils (”Mini laptops do away with text books” — NST, Dec 1).

However, I am concerned with the reason he gave, which was to “reduce the burden of schoolchildren who carry a heavy book load to school”.

Surely the main reason to equip students with laptops was so that we could educate and engage them in information and communication technology.

There can be no substitute for the text book.

The MB has offered a poor excuse to replace the textbook with a digitised or electronic form of text. How then does he propose we encourage our children to read?

E-books are not the same as a “proper” book. He is limiting the information-gathering of the student to only those books from Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka. Although I do agree that a good proportion of research is conducted over the Internet, there will always be bits of information that can only be gleaned from books.

Does this mean that he will also do away with libraries?

Equipping each Year Five pupil with a laptop is a good way to encourage them in ICT, even if it seems an expensive and over-indulgent method.

To secure easy Internet access at school is more crucial as is the availability of terminals for each student.

That is why the prime goal for giving each student a laptop is important.

However, please consider the following factors before the MB’s effort grinds to a halt.

For anyone using a computer, an uninterrupted electrical supply is crucial. Nothing can be more frustrating to the person, and damaging to the computer, if the power to the computer is suddenly stopped. Even in Ipoh, we are tormented by power cuts.

So, until and unless this basic infrastructure, that is a good and constant supply of electricity is available, the project has only a slight chance of succeeding.

To make full use of the computer’s capabilities and functions and to introduce the outside world into the house, so to speak, a good telephone connection is vital.

Dial-up connections are slow. Also, in this age of convenience, many prefer the use of handphones and few houses will have access to a (telephone) land line.

Even in Kuala Lumpur, where I sometimes take my laptop with me, the Internet broadband is unreliable. If the Internet service provider is not reliable in a comparatively wealthy area, then can things be better in rural areas?

A computer has to be protected from viruses. Anti-virus software is not cheap. This is unless the state government is condoning the use of counterfeit software.

This would go against the Malaysian government’s directive that piracy is not to be tolerated.

Will the Terengganu government subsidise the purchase of programs like Microsoft Word and Microsoft Office Suite? I doubt that the parents of these schoolchildren would want to fall foul of the law if they have to buy pirated programs.

Books that are torn or mislaid are easily replaced. A laptop is an attractive item for thieves: an open school bag in a bus or an unguarded moment and the laptop is whisk-ed away.

Will there be an insurance scheme to accompany this pilot project? Or will the computer be covered under the student’s (or rather the parent’s) house insurance (which not many houses, especially in the rural areas, have)?

If the goal of this pilot scheme is to reduce the burden of carrying a heavy load of books to school, why not have a carefully thought-out time-table that requires only a particular set of books, relating to the subject for that day, be brought to school?

Or how about the provision of lockers for each student?

A similar project to equip schoolchildren with laptops in some countries of the European Union was a failure. The most successful and most efficient way forward is still the tried and true textbook.

M.M., Ipoh

Source: NST – December 3, 2008