Perak Menteri Besar Saarani Mohamad has defended the state government’s move to distribute 20,000 smartphones to students following criticism that the devices were unsuitable for home-based teaching and learning (PdPR).

In an online press conference this afternoon, he explained that the phones were not procured using public funds but, in fact, were contributed by the YTL Foundation.

The state executive council had approved the contribution after it was briefed by the foundation and determined that the phone model was suitable for home-based teaching and learning.

The phones in question have been identified as the YES Altitude 3 sold by YTL Communications. Specifications include a 5” screen, an 854x480 pixels resolution and a 1.3GHz processor with 1GB RAM and 8GB storage.