KUALA LUMPUR: Any move towards digital textbooks will consider the limited degree of digital device ownership among students as well as internet connectivity, says Deputy Education Minister Lim Hui Ying.
She told the Dewan Rakyat that efforts by the ministry to change materials within the education system from physical to digital form will be made continuously to address the issue of students carrying heavy bags to school.
She revealed that the ministry had uploaded a total of 754 digital textbooks through its Digital Educational Learning Initiative Malaysia (DELIMa) platform.
"Of course we have plans to digitalise textbooks but it is limited by digital device (ownership) and internet connectivity in our plan to reduce the use of physical books and boost digital learning," she said in reply to Wan Hassan Mohd Romli (PN-Dungun) during Question Time on Thursday (March 9).
Wan Hassan had asked the ministry to state the actions taken to address the issue of heavy school bags.
However, Lim said there was no specific time-frame for the print-to-digital conversion as it was subject to a number of factors including the government's financial capabilities.
"Aside from that, we have provided 3,800 projectors to be used in schools to assist learning in our initial phase, 3,500 projectors for the second phase this year and an additional 3,800 projectors next year," she said.
She added that other measures included lockers for Year 1 and Year 2 students in two-session schools, reorganising the timetable to help teachers with their teaching and learning (PdP) plans, and limiting the use of workbooks to not more than two per subject, to address the issue of students carrying heavy bags to schools.
