Malaysian Fedral Government to Equip Primary Schools with ebooks

As Malaysians prepare to welcome the lunar Year of the Ox, the NS Times reports that the Teregganu state's ebook pilot programme, to furnish all its Primary Five pupils with an ebook, is to be extended throughout the country to solve the problem of primary school pupils having to carry heavy textbooks.

Many may ask where Terengganu is? The Malasian state is located some 500 kilometers northeast of the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur. The Federal Government started with a pragmatic programme equipping a 100 pupils and hopes to equip all it primary school pupils with a laptop-like device costing RM1,300 each in the next two years and are even creating a factory to assemble the devices and state government has been given the rights by manufacturer Intel to sell the devices.

The programme is expected to cost the state government RM30 million, which will be funded by money from oil royalties.