Singapore,
being a highly developed nation, has one of the highest technological
penetrations in the world and a growing reliance on the usage of technology.
This has caused certain groups of people which are unable to attain access to
technology to lose out in society. An example of this includes students from
low income families. Many schools
have incorporated web assignments and web portals, as well as several
"e-learning" days in the year, when lessons are conducted over the
Internet on the home computer. The running of such programmes was further
encouraged after the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003 as a precautionary practice. However,
the lack of ICT in students from lower income families due to their inability
to afford have caused them to be disadvantaged in using these resources and
getting the best out of their education. The Singapore government and IDA have
proposed a few solutions to curb this problem but its effectiveness remain
questionable.
The first solution IDA has come up with is
the NEU PC Plus programme. It offers students from households with a gross monthly
income of less than $2,700 the opportunity to own a new computer at a discount
of up to 75 per cent, making it a lot more affordable. It has benefited close
to 37,000 homes with school-going children since its launch in 1999. However, the program is limited in a sense
that it can only be used on Singtel and M1’s mobile broadband services that
offers a surfing speed of only 1Mbps.
This limits its usage significantly as users are
only able to browse a limited number of websites. Sites that are graphics-heavy
or have high security software would pose as a problem to these users. Thus,
students might not be able to load sites like The Straits Times, BBC, or The
New York Times and have difficulty enter a school’s secure portal to download
assignments, which leaves them still at a disadvantage.
Another solution being adopted is the PC Re-use
Scheme. It involves garnering used and unwanted PCs from government
departments, private sectors and members of the public. They will be
refurbished and distributed to the needy families as well as non-profit
organisations such as halfway houses and voluntary welfare centres. To date,
more than 1300 refurbished PCs have been donated. Older computers however
usually have older and slower systems which might not be able to support newer
more updated software programs. For example, certain specialised programs used
in university courses can only run on a MacBook with Apple software. These
older unwanted computers thus become redundant when the student is still unable
to use it for their school work.
Public access to IT is also
achieved through community centers, the private sector, libraries, LAN centers,
and other self help groups, etc., with a total of more than 10,000 PCs
available for public use. Free broadband access will also be made available at
community centres and clubs.
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Hi Daine,
ReplyDeleteafter reading your essay, the thesis is in your last 2 sentence in your first paragraph. You can try to combine them into one. In addition, you can explain more on the solution and what is going to be presented in your essay. Add in more edvidence/expert opinion reguarding the problem of lack of ICT in students.
After the introduction, we think it is better for you to explain more about your problem before you jump straight into your solutions.
"Sites that are graphics-heavy or have high security software would pose as a problem to these users. Thus, students might not be able to load sites like The Straits Times, BBC, or The New York Times and have difficulty enter a school’s secure portal to download assignments, which leaves them still at a disadvantage." It would be better to have some evidence such as the statement above.
References not up, no in text citation. Try to do some research to back up the points you made.