PETALING JAYA, Jan 27 — Since the movement control order was put in place, there have been many reports of students going to great lengths to attend online classes.
From bad internet connection to not having the necessary devices, Malaysian students and parents have faced many challenges adapting to online learning over the past year.
Just like this caring mother from Simpang, Perak — who despite not being very tech-savvy — was so determined to ensure her child can learn virtually that she went to her child’s school to get help in downloading an online learning app.
Facebook user Nazirul Mu’izz Azmi, who is a teacher at SK Datuk Alauddin, uploaded a post on his page yesterday explaining his encounter with the mother.
Nazirul said in the post that he was busy finishing some work at the school’s office when she approached him for help to download the Telegram app for her child to use for online classes, because she didn’t know how to do so.
Understandably, Nazirul assisted the mother in downloading the app but faced a few stumbling blocks along the way due to the poor internet and phone connection in the rural school area.
“The problem was that the line is terrible at our school. I downloaded the app using the office Wi-Fi, but the confirmation code via text message was taking a long time to come through,” he said.
“If you go to a spot where there’s a good phone signal, there won’t be Wi-Fi to use the app. But when she comes to the office that has an internet connection, there’s no phone signal.”
He then told her to go outside near the school guardhouse to hopefully get a better signal so that she could receive the message.
Nazirul also said that the mother seemed flustered and struggled to remember her phone number when they had to key it in upon downloading the app.
“She came back in with her phone number written on her hand after she was able to find it on her phone. But we still had to get the confirmation code through text message.”
Nazirul also said that the mother had trouble understanding how the confirmation code process works and had to walk outside to the guardhouse multiple times before finally receiving the code for him to key-in on the app.
“I apologised to her numerous times. I was just too stressed with my work to leave my desk and the line was a real problem. But she didn’t seem to mind and just wanted to get it done.”
After finally getting the confirmation process done, Nazirul placed the app on her cracked phone’s home screen, so that she can find it easily, and even helped her enter the online class group for her child.
“These are some of the struggles that people in rural areas face in their bid to ensure their kids are not left behind in their education,” said Nazirul.
Many social media users also reacted to the post as they praised the mother for her determination and willingness to help her children in their education.
