The 1BestariNet internet program was developed to bring high speed broadband connectivity to 10,000 schools nationwide, a noble initiative by the Ministry of Education that would allow hundreds of thousands of primary and secondary students access the best learning tools on the internet. However since its inception in 2013 the RM4 billion project has been beleaguered with under delivery issues and was constantly pointed out in Parliament only to be ignored by the previous Government.
No longer playing the patient game, the new Education Minister Datuk Mazlee took the bull by the horn and as soon as the contract expired, he refused contract extension to YTL and opened up a tender. The resulting outcome, premier operators TM, Maxis and Celcom were all handed a portion of the responsibility in ensuring high speed connectivity reach all schools be it urban or rural. MOE is giving these companies 6 month interim delivery until end 2019 when the contracts will be open once again for all parties to tender. A somewhat assessment process to see who delivers and excels.
It is fair to say, the turnaround has been remarkable all telco’s have deployed their service covering 85% of schools in all states with Penang and Perlis achieving 100% reach. 8500 schools are now enjoying faster speeds with Celcom 4G, Maxis 4G and UnifiBiz, which some were left out in the past. YTL continues to lambaste the Ministry for not giving them a chance to tender or extent their tenure and has even gone to the extent to divulge proposal of ‘free internet’ to the Government. But of course the question on everyone’s lips is…why only now?
The approach by Datuk Mazlee is laudable to allow free market determine, let the best provider raise up and give the best service for our schools, teachers and students. The winners are them and not the suppliers or contractors. With high speed internet access compatible with the rest of the country and using proven education platforms, we have now given equal opportunity to all students irrespective if they are from urban or rural background.
