Fate of controversial RM4bil 1BestariNet school project to be known by Jan says Maszlee

Dr Maszlee Malik. -filepic

KUALA LUMPUR: The Education Ministry will soon decide on whether to continue with the 1BestariNet programme in schools said, Minister Dr Maszlee Malik.

This follows a review of the RM4bil programme to spearhead 4G broadband connectivity and virtual learning environments (VLE) to some 10,000 schools nationwide.

"Whether we decide to continue or change the programme is dependent on the findings of a third-party committee set up to study the effectiveness of 1BestariNet.

"We currently have an initial report done by Mimos that has been submitted to the committee, which will conclude its findings by end January next year," he said, when answering a question by Datuk Seri Hasan Arifin (BN-Rompin) during Minister's Question Time in Parliament today (Dec 11).

At present, he said the Ministry is still bound to the 1BestariNet programme until June 2019, based on an agreement entered between the previous Barisan Nasional administration and the supplier.

From January to October this year, he said that the ministry had paid RM530.3mil towards the project.

1BestariNet was introduced in 2011 by the Education Ministry under a 15-year project that will cost RM4.077bil to complete.

However, various complaints on the project were highighted in the Auditor-General's Report and Parliament's Public Accounts Committee in 2013 and 2014.

The problems included: delays in installing internet services, the lack of a project committee, poor broadband access and the ministry’s failure to properly research schools' needs.

Earlier, Dr Maszlee told lawmakers that a total of 10,190 schools in the country had internet broadband services.

Of this, he said that 9,786 schools (6,684 rural and 3,102 urban schools) got their broadband through 1BestariNet.

He said that 404 schools (375 rural and 29 urban schools) were getting their broadband from other service providers.

Dr Maszlee added that there were 1,578 schools that had low broadband speeds as they were located in rural areas.