Why are Malaysian students still carrying heavy physical textbooks daily?

Question

Accepted Answer

Malaysian students still carry heavy physical textbooks daily because most public schools treat digital options like DELIMa as supplementary rather than replacing the printed books.

Students in Malaysian national schools, including those in Standard 1, are still required to bring many physical textbooks to school. Even though the Ministry of Education’s main digital learning portal, DELIMa (Digital Education Learning Initiative Malaysia), provides access to hundreds of digital textbooks and other materials, it is described as supplementary or optional for most primary and secondary schools, so students continue to carry heavy bags almost every day.
DELIMa offers digital textbooks but is not used as a full replacement
DELIMa is positioned as the Ministry of Education’s main digital learning portal, rebranded from earlier MOE Digital Learning efforts after Frog VLE. It provides hundreds of digital textbooks plus other resources such as interactive modules and videos, but it is framed as an optional or supplementary tool for most schools rather than the default learning format.
Most schools still require printed books for everyday classes
Because DELIMa is not presented as a mandatory substitute, students remain responsible for the physical textbooks they need for school. The result is that students still lug backpack-like bags to school almost every day, even with digital resources available online.
Digital learning exists in many forms, yet the physical load continues
The availability of digital learning content goes beyond e-textbooks, including video lessons, interactive websites, and educational games. Despite this broader digital ecosystem, the day-to-day requirement for physical textbooks remains in place in national schools, keeping the workload on students’ backs and spines.
Printed textbook cycles contribute to ongoing reliance on physical copies
The use of physical textbooks is also linked to wastage, with new copies of the same books printed year after year and then discarded after final exams. This pattern supports the continued presence of printed materials in the system, even as digital alternatives have been proposed for more than a decade, including PDF-style textbook distribution ideas.

Reading history

Hide →

This history is cleared when the page is closed.

Why are Malaysian students still carrying heavy physical textbooks daily?

Loading

Was this article helpful?

Helpful

Not helpful

Report an issue

2

0

0

Share with friends