Students Started Petition to Stop MOE from Installing Management App in Their Learning Devices

Remember back when the circuit breaker happened and no one could go to school?

You might also recall that during that time, how students had to shift to full home-based learning (HBL) format.

Since then, it has since been announced that all students would receive a personal laptop or tablet by the end of 2021.

Students could subsidise payment for the personal learning device (PLD) through Edusave.

However, the Ministry of Education also mentioned that a Device Management Application (DMA) will be installed in those devices.

The DMA effectively allows each device to be tracked and be remotely controlled by teacher during lesson time.

Which, let’s just say didn’t sit well with a bunch of students.

Students Started Petition to Stop MOE from Installing Management App in Their Devices

On 24 Jan, a post on Reddit surrounding said dissatisfaction appeared on the site.

In it was a link to a petition which called MOE not to install the DMA on a student’s laptop.

Jing Yu Lye, the person in charge of the petition, cited several points of concern.

The first point mentioned was the Classroom Management Service.

Lye states that this meant teachers could disable a PLD at any time and show content at their choosing along with seeing with you’re currently doing.

Next was the Mobile Device Management Service, which would allow teachers to install applications on a PLD remotely. Lye’s concern was over whether any potential malicious programmes would be installed despite security patches.

The third point was against the Usage Management Service that is supposed to manage how long a student is on the laptop and what sites they go to. The point brought up mentioned how teachers could effectively control the device usage as well as black or whitelist whatever they wanted.

Feels That the DMA Is Not Effective

Lye also says that the blocking and controlling of devices does not seem to help the narrative it might help students be more self-regulatory.

“They still have access to their phone and other devices.”

One solution Lye suggested was to get parents more involved with their students.

A point made was to organise workshops for parents in order to help teach their children self-discipline.

Lye also stated that since parents would understand their children better, they could likely work with them better to find a solution.

Many comments, both from the Reddit post and petition both echoed similar concerns.

Some cited that it was unfair that devices paid from their own pockets be controlled by teachers.

As of this writing, 2,390 people have signed the petition.

Featured Image: change.org