As the country continues with efforts to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic, Maybank has contributed RM6.5 million to enable online learning for underprivileged students, particularly from B40 families.
In partnership with CERDIK, a corporate responsibility initiative which was introduced in Budget 2021 to provide laptops and data connectivity to students from lower-income, Maybank has completed the process of reaching out to more than 3,200 students in over 30 schools nationwide.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has created various disruptions to lives and livelihoods in our country and globally. Besides impacting economic and social activities, schools have also been closed due to the Movement Control Order (MCO), suspending formal classroom learning for 4.9 million schoolchildren nationwide,” said Maybank Chairman, Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa.
“While we applaud the gallant effort by teachers and students to quickly switch to a virtual learning setting, we realise there were still some segments in our communities experiencing different type of challenges. Students from B40 families do not have the proper devices and online access including data plans, resulting in many of them being unable to participate in online classes organised by their teachers.”
Under the Maybank-CERDIK programme, the students have received a DELL Latitude 3310 Laptop each, together with a dongle and a 12-month data plan subscription.
Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Zamzamzairani also pointed out that this programme will benefit deserving students in both rural and urban areas.
“We are aware of the critical need to improve digital education access for underprivileged children especially from rural locations. With new devices supported by data connectivity, they too can be part of this transformative initiative which is very much in line with our mission to Humanise Financial Services.”
“In today’s highly digitalised environment, we must take the opportunity to leverage new technologies to ensure our children have uninterrupted access to education regardless of their location. The pandemic has its own challenges, but we must persevere, and Maybank is committed to partner with programmes like CERDIK to promote new ways of learning, increase device ownership and close the digital gap among low-income households across the country.”
Recipients under this programme were identified and validated by the Ministry of Education Malaysia.