Teachers' Day (Hari Guru) Gift - The 1Malaysia Netbook

Teachers' Day is intended to be a special day to appreciate the contribution of teachers. It is an occasion to honour teachers for their special contributions in the community. The date on which Teachers' Day is celebrated varies from country to country. In Malaysia, Teachers' Day is officially celebrated on 16th May. This date was chosen because on the same day in 1956, the Federal Legislative Council of the Federation of Malaya endorsed the Razak Report, which has been the basis of education in Malaysia ever since.

Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek yesterday announced the extension of the 1Malaysia Netbook programme to teachers nationwide in appreciation of their services. The 1Malaysia Netbook programme, aimed at enhancing the IT knowledge of rural communities, was introduced in 2010.

More than 1.7 million school and university students from under privileged families have benefited from this programme so far. Teachers are the pillars of the nation's progress. Therefore the government had decided to give all teachers nationwide this gift. The initial phase would involve about 400000 teachers.

Netbooks are small, lightweight and inexpensive computers that were quite popular a few years back. By Year 2011, the increasing popularity of tablets, with improved computing capabilities and lower production cost had led to the decline of netbook sales. Let's wait and see what will be the technical spec of the netbooks to be given out to teachers.