KUALA LUMPUR:The National Union of Teaching Profession (NUTP) in Peninsular Malaysia has today created an NUTP Charity Centre (Device Donation) to collect tools (gadgets) to help students follow the teaching and learning process (PdP) from home following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Its secretary-general, Harry Tan Huat Hock said the initiative was important because based on a study, there is a huge number of hardcore poor students in Malaysia and the lack of tools could affect the online learning of students from this group.

He said in a statement here today that with the establishment of the centre, the public had the opportunity to donate devices to underprivileged students.

The NUTP, he said, would also try to get new or used devices that are no longer in use from companies, non-governmental organisations and individuals, adding that the used devices must be able to support online learning. 

"For example, a laptop must have at least the Windows 7 software and the device must be able to update the latest software, while devices such as smartphones should be able to upload applications like Zoom Meeting, Google Classroom or other software that can help learning,” he said.

Harry said that for a start, the NUTP would hand over device contributions to 10 Orang Asli students in Negeri Sembilan.

He also called on the public to work together with the NUTP to help collect devices to be distributed to underprivileged students.

-- BERNAMA