PADANG TERAP: The Education Ministry has instructed 1BestariNet to upgrade Internet bandwith connectivity at 6,700 schools nationwide to 10 Mbps (megabits per second) by next year.
Its minister, Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid, said the move is in line with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's wish to see improvement in ICT (Information Communications Technology) accessibility and usage among students, especially those in rural areas.
He said the ministry has instructed 1BestariNet to upgrade the current average school bandwidth of 4 Mbps to between 8 Mbps and 20 Mbps by 2018.
"As for schools which have yet to be connected by the 1BestariNet tower facility, we want to see their wireless connection reach the 4G signal," he told reporters today.
Mahdzir, who is also Padang Terap member of Parliament, said this after opening a Parliamentary-level Quran recital ceremony.
He said there are many schools in the rural districts of Sabah, Sarawak and on the peninsula still using the Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) system, which depends on 1.3 and 1.4 Mbps coverage.
"There are still a lot to do in these areas, but for now, we have set the targets as the Key Performance Index (KPI) for 1BestariNet," he said.
1BestariNet is an initiative by the Education Ministry with the support of YTL Communications.
Under the project, 10,000 schools in Malaysia will be equipped with access to high speed broadband Internet services and a virtual education platform.