THE Education Ministry is extending the smart school programme to another 15 rural schools, said Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) executive officer, Datuk Badlisham Ghazali.
There are already 88 smart schools so far.
He said out of the 15, two schools, Sek Men Ampang Pecah in Kuala Kubu Baru, Selangor and Sek Keb Felda Palong 14 in Gemas, Negeri Sembilan, were selected as rural smart schools.
The benefits that these two schools would enjoy include notebooks, wireless Internet connection (WiFi) and wireless digital communication system (WiMAX), he said during the soft launch of the programme last week.
In a statement earlier, MDeC said it had been given the responsibility to accelerate the making of all schools smart, focusing on 50 rural schools.
“We are starting off with only two rural schools as these schools could face problems like power supply disruptions.
“The fact that we have initiated the programme in the schools will also help rectify and minimise other problems that may arise,’’ he said adding that the ministry will only extend it to the other schools when it was satisfied with the outcome.
Besides MDeC, which is the facilitator and coordinator for the smart school programme, more than 10 sponsors with sponsorship worth RM1.4mil, have agreed to the year-long project of upgrading the schools in terms of infrastructure, hardware and software, which will be implemented immediately.