Communications and Multimedia Minister Tan Sri Annuar Musa has provided an update on PerantiSiswa at Parliament today. He said there are some quarters that cast doubts on the government’s commitment to implement the tablet program. Therefore, he has to provide an explanation on the matter.
He said the government’s plan to offer tablets to B40 students studying in government (IPTA) and private (IPTS) institutions of higher learning as announced during the tabling of Budget 2022 is still on and will be continued. He emphasised there’s no doubt about it.
He said an open tender was called for the tablets. However, after the first tender, the Ministry of Finance, which oversees procurement above a certain value, have called for a retender to amend several things which were deemed necessary. This has caused a delay because another open tender have to be called and it has been completed.
Annuar Musa said the Ministry of Finance is the authoritative body to make a decision and he expects them to make a decision on the tender in a week’s time.
The Ministry of Communications and Multimedia have received nearly 100,000 applications for the tablets and they are being processed. If all goes according to plan, the delivery of the tablets will take place in August. The minister said the exact delivery dates will be decided after discussions with the respective institutions of higher learning. An evaluation committee is currently looking through the eligibility of applications from Phase 1 of Perantisiswa.
Since there’s a new batch of students entering the institutions of higher learning who have completed their SPM, the Ministry has decided to open another round of Perantisiswa applications for 60 days between from 1st August until 30th September 2022.
Under the second phase, the government has agreed to expand the eligibility for the tablets to cover students at teaching institutes (IPG) under the Ministry of Education as well as students at matriculation colleges. Annuar Musa said the students from B40 families with a household income of less than RM4,800 per month are eligible to submit their applications online. The delivery for the second phase of PerantiSiswa is expected to start in October.
The Minister said he will provide further updates and details on the program during his oral answer in Parliament on 4th August. He hopes to share more information including the brand of the tablet, hardware specifications and software.
Related reading
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- Annuar Musa: Better to provide 350,000 high-quality tablets than low-quality laptops
- PerantiSiswa tablets specs revealed, here are the possible options
- Budget 2022: B40 university students to get free tablets under PerantiSiswa Keluarga Malaysia initiative
