Warisan critcises Education Ministry's 'flip-flop'
KOTA KINABALU: Warisan has criticised the Education Ministry's “flip-flop and lack of proper planning”. According to its vice president, Datuk Junz Wong, this has resulted in unnecessary financial burden for parents and families. "What was the whole point of launching DidikTV and urging parents to purchase laptops in the first place, when school is going to reopen soon?" Junz, who is also Tanjung Aru assemblyman, said while laptops will be useful, the timing of purchase has greatly burdened many parents and families. "Computers, laptops or gadgets are useful. Nobody will question that. But if given a choice, many families would prefer buying it later when finances are more stable. "Isn't the government aware that many people have lost jobs? "Between buying a RM2,500 computer and buying food for the family, which would be more important to a family who has no steady income now? Of course the latter," he said in a statement yesterday. Junz suggested, instead of making hasty and flip-flop decisions, the government should have made proper plannings so that parents did not need to hastily gadgets, thus easing the financial constrains of affected families. "If the government had been deliberating the reopening of schools, then parents should have been told so. Parents would not need to hastily purchase new gadgets. This would have saved parents thousands of ringgit for the time being. "And when the economy improves, jobs have been secured, it is still not too late to purchase laptops." Towards the end, Junz said that this shows the government is out of touch from the hardships affecting people. "The government seems to be out of touch from the hardship faced by people." "Don't the cabinet ministers know that technology improves over time? The same amount of money spent to purchase laptops today, can fetch a better specification laptop a few months down the road. "And since schools are going to reopen, those purchased laptops have turned from being essentials to being optional," he said. He concluded that these laptops would be now left idling in one corner of the house while school is reopened.