MP for Kulai, Teo Nie Ching urges the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia (KKMM) and the Education Ministry (KPM) to increase the broadcasting time for TV Pendidikan on RTM.

She said that this was to ensure that students who could not afford electronic devices to keep up with online learning would not be left behind in their studies.

Nie Ching referred to results from a survey conducted by the Education Ministry on how ready students were for online learning. It revealed that 36.9% of students did not have suitable electronic devices for doing so.

“I hope that KPM and KKMM will take this issue seriously and ensure that RTM increases its broadcasting time for TV Pendidikan as soon as possible,” she said in a press conference at Parliament on Wednesday.

For the record, the TV Pendidikan programme by KKMM on the TV Okey channel has only been aired for two hours everyday since April 6 this year.

Commenting further, Nie Ching went on to say that the length of the TV Pendidikan programme aired on RTM is short compared to our neighbouring countries.

“In Indonesia, such a programme is aired for 6 hours daily on mainstream TV channels, while Thailand has up to 15 TV channels just for education alone.”

To put things in perspective, the Education Ministry has closed down schools from November 9 to the last day of the schooling term on December 18 following the increase of Covid-19 cases in the country.