Bukit Bendera MP Zairil Khir Johari believes that the 1BestariNet project will only widen the urban-rural gap.

Although it was initially touted as a technological tool that would bridge the urban-rural divide, Zairil said the proposition only sounds great in theory but the reality is quite the opposite.

“In fact, the Ministry’s approach of implementing a universal roll-out across all 10,000 schools in our country would actually widen the urban-rural gap,” he said in a statement today.

According to the Auditor-General's Report 2013, the project, which also includes a virtual learning environment (VLE), is rarely used by teachers and students.

The audit report identified that cooperation is needed by all stakeholders for the VLE system to be implemented successfully.

Zairil said the relatively high usage of VLE in SJKC Sam Tet, in Ipoh, stemmed from the fact that the teachers had been fully exposed to the system.

“The school management and Parent-Teacher Association displayed exceptional support by providing projectors in every classroom, hiring a special computer technician for the school, as well as bearing the cost of equipment repair.

In addition to that, the majority of students at the school also had computers and Internet access at home, which greatly facilitated assignments and VLE access outside the school, he added.

Zairil said this shows how there needs to be strong technological infrastructure, well-trained and competent teachers, as well as full support from all stakeholders concerned.

“Unfortunately, such a scenario is simply impossible to replicate across 10,000 schools, 500,000 teachers and 5.5 million students.

“This is especially so in the case of rural schools, which suffer inadequacies in every critical area.

The DAP assistant national publicity secretary said this proves that the project, apart from failing to achieve its objective of bridging the urban-rural divide, will in fact, widen the gap.

“This is due to the fact that well-supported urban schools would be in a better position to reap the benefits of the cyber classroom while under-supported rural schools would be left further and further behind,” he said.

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