Opposition ticked off for chiding e-book programme

The opposition has been taken to task for running down the Terengganu government's e-book or electronic book programme.

Menteri Besar Ahmad Said said the project had benefited students

and teachers and not a waste of public fund as claimed by the opposition.

"If you want to know whether the project is a waste, ask the teachers and 25,000 students, who have received them, and their parents," he said when winding up debate on an additional budget at the state assembly today.

More than 3,000 teachers in the state are expected to benefit from the programme and so far 800 of them have received e-books from the state government.

Ahmad said the e-book programme had shown positive results with more students achieving better examination results.

"We will also have a question bank with 300,000 questions stored and in future we will set up a virtual classroom," he said.

To a suggestion that e-book cost only RM200 each in China, Ahmad retorted, "Of course, there are cheap e-books available in the market.

"Even an i-pod now fetches RM100. But what is the point after using it for one day, it is damaged," he said, adding that the e-book costing RM1,000 each was equipped with programmes meant for learning.

He said the opposition was worried as e-books were distributed free of charge to students irrespective of their parents' political ideology.

"The opposition leaders are still conservative, they want to copy what others are doing.

"If others have succeeded in selling banana fritters or sugar cane drinks, they want to follow suit. We must dare to start new things that will benefit the people," he added.

The state assembly session continues tomorrow.

- Bernama