Rural schools in Limburg are getting attention on the digital agenda

LIMBANG, 24 Oct: Rural schools in Limbang continue to be focused on the country's digital transformation agenda to ensure students have access to better digital learning facilities.

The Chief Secretary of the Digital Ministry, Datuk Fabian Bigar said that efforts to bridge the digital divide between urban and rural communities as well as those with disabilities are among the priorities of the ministry.

According to him, the selection of Balance as a location for implementation of the programme reflects the ministry's commitment to ensure that schools far from the city centre also benefit from digital development.

"The Ministry of Digital has a motto to ensure that no one is excluded from the digital transformation stream. We need to close the digital divide, both in urban and rural areas, between the wealthy and the less fortunate. So that's our principle.

"That's why among them we also chose schools far from Kuching and so on. We chose Balance because I used to sit on Balance. So we're going to keep looking for schools like this to help them, to bring them into the mainstream", he said.

He said this at a press conference after the inaugural meeting of the Digital Travel Programme and the Digital Ministry's MADANI Lift Village (KAM) and MADANI Lift School (SAM) Delivery Council in 2026 at St Edmund's National School Hall, here today.

The meeting was attended by Deputy Minister of Transport, Datuk Hasbi Habibollah; Member of the National Assembly (ADUN) Batu Danau, Dato Paulus Palu Gumbang; Director General of the Department of Personal Data Protection, Shariffah Rashidah Syed Othman; as well as Grand Master of St Edmund's College, Anthony Upe.

Fabian, meanwhile, encourages the school to ensure that all digital equipment provided is well-managed and maintained so that it can be used by students in the long term.

He said that the maintenance of the facility not only involves physical aspects of hardware, but also includes software maintenance and cybersecurity to prevent threats of cyberattacks and equipment damage.

According to him, continuous digital facility management is essential to ensure that the investments being channelled benefit present and future generations of students. -TVS