Grandma Only Has RM270 To Buy Phone So Grandchild Can Attend Online Classes Since Lockdown

Nowadays due to the Covid-19, most of us are working remotely at home while our children/younger relatives are doing e-learning. However, not everyone is “lucky” enough to be able to afford a phone or a tablet.

On 16th May, a Thai man Jatupol Boriboon shared an incident that he came across. The post went viral and within three days, it has already garnered 23,000 comments and 169,000 shares as of the time of writing.

The story starts like this: A grandmother went to a mobile phone store with her grandson in a mall. When Jatupol the shopkeeper saw them looking around, he hurried over to serve the duo. Once the grandmother saw Jatupol, she asked him:

“Do you have any mobile phones that are less than 2000 baht (RM272)?”

To understand their needs better, he asked if the phone was for the old lady and she replied that it was for her grandson who needed it for his online classes. Since she only has very little money, Jatupol asked her to look around for devices that are on promotion. However, in order to buy those phones, she still needs to subscribe to a monthly plan.

It is not known whether the grandma bought any phones that day but the man continued on and said,

“Online learning is a great initiative but for kids who are from poor families, it is a privilege.

“Most elementary school students do not have phones and now they have online classes which will burden quite a few parents.”

He further explained that it’s correct that you can use a TV to get online lessons but what if the household is so poor that they couldn’t afford to have a TV? E-learning is a good initiative but it would be better if it didn’t burden parents financially.

This post has set off a big debate on Thai Twitter.

What do you think about this? Tell us in the comments!

Also read: Heartbreaking: Dad Breaks Piggy Bank So He Can Pay For 18yo Son’s RM1,000 Fine For Violating MCO