During the Movement Control Order (MCO), most students studied at home and do a lot of online classes. This is not a problem as a lot of students actually have wifi or data at home to access the internet. However, not everyone is that lucky especially for those staying in rural area.
A student from Sarawak, known as Rose who currently studied in Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris(UPSI) was inspired by a student named Veveonah who complete her online exam on a tree, she did her online presentation in the rubber estate. Both of them faced the same challenge with very limited internet access in their village. Her post gained over 10K likes and 4862 shares.
She shared that she was supposed to do her presentation last week but was postponed due to a lack of internet access in her place. She had to prepare early and sit at the rubber estate since it has better internet access.
This is because her village had very limited internet access and there were only a few places that have good internet access like palm oil plantation or hilly area. However, those places are not appropriate to visit every day because she has full class except Tuesday and Sunday. The reason she chooses the rubber estate is because it’s closed to her father’s farm and she could help her father to repair the hut for her to use for an online class for the next day.
She also shared that actually her village is not that far from the town. But, she could not afford the cost, and also she doesn’t have any vehicle to go back and forth every day. She is not well-off to go to the town every day especially with the current weather being rainy. As a final year student, she really needs good internet access for her final year project information. All systems like MyGuru, MyUpsi Portal & Pustaka UPSI can’t be accessed if there is no internet.
She also hopes that her words can be heard, so relevant authority can look into improving infrastructure in rural area . She apologized that her words might seem harsh and quite hard to read as she still needs to learn a lot of writing. She ended up her post with a quote, “In the pursuit of knowledge I strive that nothing will impede,”
Netizen’s responses:
Their situation highlighted the infrastructure disparities faced by those living in rural area. Hope their voice can be heard and wish can be granted. Good luck!
Info via Facebook
Photo Credit to Facebook