GEORGE TOWN: The Krishnan sisters love going to school – but their initial excitement at attending online classes, after schools were closed last month, quickly turned into heartache.
With only two mobile phones among the five girls, and only one data plan, they have found it nearly impossible to carry on with their studies.
The eldest, Form Six student Annal Krishnan, 18, is the only one in the family with a prepaid data plan on her newish phone. She shares that internet connection with sister Joyhanna, 16, who uses an old phone with a broken screen.
They have a weak internet signal, and a spotty connection that goes on and off.
Most of the sisters miss out, yielding to Annal as she is in sixth form and in an “important academic year”, but it has been a struggle to keep up with the four-hour-long classes.
“We give up sometimes because we can barely hear what the teacher is saying. Sometimes I don’t even show up, ” she told FMT in an interview at their rented city council flat at Jalan Dato Keramat.
The other sisters, Lili, 13, Joisse, 11, and Emimal, 10, miss school. Without internet access, they carry out revision studies on their own, using their textbooks and other materials.
When asked what they wanted so they could study, they all replied in unison: “Internet and a laptop!”
Their father, security guard Krishnan Doraisamy, 52, can’t afford to pay for broadband internet or a laptop computer as their friends have.
He was unemployed for two years and recently started working as a guard at a Chinese school in Jelutong at a monthly salary of RM1,300. They also receive social welfare aid of RM650 and a RM600 donation from time to time from the Buddhist Tzu-Chi Merits Society.
His wife, Ratnadevi Maniam, 45, said Krishnan has had diabetes all his life and needs insulin shots, as does their youngest child, Emimal Rose, who inherited the disease.
Readers who wish to help them may send a WhatsApp message on FMT’s Helpline at 0193899839.