Perak MB: No issues with smartphones distributed to students in the state

IPOH, July 7 — Perak has no plan in recalling the 20,000 smartphones given to students from B40 families under its Tuisyen Cikgu Saarani (TCS) programme despite another incident of a government sponsored smartphone exploding as alleged by Muar MP Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman recently on his social media account. 

Mentri Besar Datuk Saarani Mohamad said there are no issues with the smartphones distributed by the state.

“Firstly, I don’t know where the incident had happened (referring to the Syed Saddiq Twitter post). 

“So far, the smartphones which we have distributed to the students in Perak have no reports of ignition,” he told a press conference held via Zoom. 

Instead, Saarani said there has been overwhelming demand to the state to supply more smartphones to the students. 

“After our distribution, more and more people requested for the same smartphones,” he said. 

Yesterday, Syed Saddiq took it to Twitter to condemn the government for distributing low-quality smartphones to the students for the online learning (PdPR) classes. 

“What had happened? Once again student’s phone exploded.

“There have been many incidents of phone ignition, which was distributed by the government, but still no serious action taken? 

At the very least, recall this phone and replace it with a better quality! Why is it so slow to act,” he wrote on his Twitter account.

Previously, Perak government was heavily criticised for distributing alleged 20,000 “low quality” smartphones. 

Saarani hit back at the criticism and said that the students would not be able to attend PdPR classes otherwise.

“It is better than not owning a smartphone at all. Imagine, if the 20,000 students had no smartphone at all, how are they going to carry out their online learning,” he said. 

Saarani had said that the smartphones and the features were deemed suitable for online classes. 

The Yes Altitude 3 smartphones were donated by the YTL Foundation to the Perak government. 

SoyaCincau technology news site deduced that the smartphones were basic devices with a MediaTek 1.3GHz processor, 1GB RAM and 8GB of storage.

The state Education, Higher Education and Human Resources Committee chairman Ahmad Saidi Mohammad Daud had previously said that they were intentionally low-specification devices to prevent students from using them for gaming.