Perak Menteri Besar Saarani Mohamad has defended the state government’s move to distribute 20,000 smartphones to students following criticism that the devices were unsuitable for home-based teaching and learning (PdPR).<br /><br />In an online press conference this afternoon, he explained that the phones were not procured using public funds but, in fact, were contributed by the YTL Foundation.<br /><br />The state executive council had approved the contribution after it was briefed by the foundation and determined that the phone model was suitable for home-based teaching and learning.<br /><br />The phones in question have been identified as the YES Altitude 3 sold by YTL Communications. Specifications include a 5” screen, an 854x480 pixels resolution and a 1.3GHz processor with 1GB RAM and 8GB storage.<br /><br />The devices were given free to students from B40 families under the state’s “Tuisyen Cikgu Saarani” initiative that was named after Saarani.
