E-LEARNING DEVICES HANDOVER CEREMONY

SPEECH BY THE CHIEF MINISTER OF PENANG
YAB TUAN CHOW KON YEOW FOR THE
E-LEARNING DEVICES HANDOVER CEREMONY

19 NOVEMBER 2020

 

 

YB Puan Chong Eng

Penang State Exco for Social Development and Non-Islamic Religious Affairs and Chairperson of Penang E-learning Computer Programme

 

Mr. Wing K. Lee

CEO of YTL Communications

 

Mr. Ngoo Seong Boon

Vice Chairperson of Penang E-learning Computer Programme

 

Mr. Ryan Lim

General Manager of Swisspac Resources Sdn Bhd, and Committee of Penang E-learning Computer Programme

 

Members of the media,

 

Ladies and Gentlemen.

Good afternoon to all of you!

 

On 7 November 2020, when the Federal Government announced the month-long Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) for 7 additional states, we, the Penang State Government, started receiving calls from various principals and teachers. Like an ant on a hot griddle, the educators were seeking for more e-learning devices to be loaned or handed over to needy students as more schools were obliged to close.

I am pleased to note that with the concerted efforts and coordination of the e-Learning Computer Task Force and my office, in particular, one of my officers in charge, we managed to arrange 250 units of used laptops within 3 days. And today, a week after the arrangements have been made, these laptops are now ready to be distributed to the underprivileged students.

Due to the cancellation of all school activities and to curb the urgent issue of inadequate e-Learning devices, we have channelled the balance of the Chinese and Mission Schools institutionalised allocation which was initially reserved for schools to organise educational activities, to cover the expenses of the 250 units of used laptops which costs RM198,000.

I would like to take this opportunity to extend my heartfelt appreciation to all those involved, including the school teachers, headmaster, headmistress, principals and the Board of Directors, for having spent their time and efforts to provide the details of the students in this very short period of time, so that we can efficiently distribute the e-Learning devices.

Another good news for today is the announcement of “Learn From Home” Initiative. YTL Foundation in collaboration with YTL Communications ("YTLC") is providing free YES 4G Smartphones complete with 12 months of free YES service with 120GB of 4G data to 224 students in Penang.

I was told that 76 families have already received free smartphones and applications from a further 148 families are being processed. A huge thank you to YTL for the contribution with the value of RM 201,376.

Lastly, looking at today’s initiative, I hope that the State Government’s collaboration with the private sector, such as YTL, will continue to expand and that more private sector will be on board to help the State develop and assist our students.

Thank you.        

I now pass the floor to Mr. Wing K. Lee from YTL Communications to deliver his speech, followed by YB Puan Chong Eng to provide us the report on the e-Learning Computer Programme.