by ASILA JALIL / graphic by MZUKRI MOHAMAD

THE Cerdik initiative has distributed nearly 130,000 laptops as of Sept 7 and is on track to achieve its target of distributing a total of 150,000 laptops to students in 500 schools by the end of the month.

Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz highlighted that children in emerging economies had missed the equivalent of 45 schooling days last year and is compounded in 2021.

“To avoid a lost generation, an immediate effort to double down on children most affected by school closures and empty classrooms is being undertaken by the Education Ministry,” he said in his special address at the National Recovery Summit today.

The initiative was first announced by Tengku Zafrul in his Budget 2021 speech last year where government-linked companies and government-linked investment companies will contribute RM150 million into Tabung Cerdik to provide 150,000 students in 500 schools with laptops as a pilot project to facilitate online education.