Early this month, the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad announced at the Multimedia Asia Conference and Exposition a RM5 billion plan for Malaysia to take a quantum leap into the future under the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC).
The key component of the MSC is a collection of seven flagship applications, namely: electronic government, telemedicine, research and development cluster, worldwide manufacturing web, borderless marketing centre, multimedia funds haven and the world’s first multipurpose smart card.
There is an eighth application, called Smart Schools, which is aimed at putting Internet access connections to all schools in the MSC and using computers extensively in the teaching/learning process.
Mahathir said that all schools within the 750 sq. km. MSC will be connected to the Internet by 1998 and the rest of the country will follow suit.
A fortnight later however, it was reported that the Cabinet had given approval for the establishment of one Smart School in the MSC.
The pilot project of one Smart School in the MSC, or even connecting all the schools in the MSC to the Internet, will not be addressing the national problem of promoting computer literacy among the 4.5 million primary and secondary school students in the country.
In the past nine months in Parliament, I had made two important proposals to prepare Malaysia, in particular the new generation of Malaysians, for a quantum leap into the Information Age.
Firstly, during the debate on the Seventh Malaysia Plan in Parliament in May this year, I had called on the government to respond to the challenge of Information Technology Revolution by proclaiming the Knowledge Society as a national vision and strategic objective, using Information Technology to provide the environment for lifelong learning in which all Malaysians will have access to the widest possible variety of learning opportunities and tools.
Secondly, during the debate in Parliament on the 1996 Education Act, which came into force on 1st August 1996, I had introduced an amendment to the new Education Bill during the committee stage to make “computer literacy” a core subject for primary and secondary school curriculum.
Although this amendment was defeated, the Education Minister, Datuk Najib Tun Razak said that the timing was not right for such an amendment because of inadequate facilities.
I had repeatedly asked the Education Ministry to set the target that by the year 2000, all the 8,500 schools would be connected to the Internet, but the government is not prepared to make such a commitment.
Knowledge has become the key resource in determining Malaysia’s competitiveness and whether we can attain a world-class status in the global economy.
In the knowledge society, education is central to personal, organisational and national well-being.
As knowledge is generally acquired through schooling, educational institutions (from pre-school through to tertiary) and libraries are at the knowledge society’s centre.
In preparing Malaysia for the Information Age, where the the young generation of Malaysians can acquire computer literacy and competence, the Education Ministry must give high priority to an urgent programme to train teachers in the use of various IT approaches.
At present, the percentage of the 250,000 teachers in the primary and secondary schools in Malaysia who have got onto the Internet is very low. In fact, it is not uncommon to find pupils who have greater computer literacy than their teachers.
Information Technology will redefine the teacher-student relationships, changing the role of teachers. However, teachers cannot guide students in this new relationship unless they first become familiar and proficient in IT.
For this reason, the Government should launch a three-point IT plan to ensure that the 250,000 teachers in the country are computer-literate and get on the Internet by the year 2000 so that they could guide the new generation of schoolchildren into the Knowledge Society, which comprises the following elements:
The information technology revolution is rapidly transforming how we live, learn, work and play, and Malaysia must not be left behind by these changes if we aspire to world-class status in the global economy.
One such evidence of the revolutionary changes taking place around us is the announcement a few days ago about changes in the National University of Singapore (NUS) because of the impact of IT.
All NUS lecturers will trim their syllabus by 20 to 30 per cent so that they can focus on teaching the fundamentals and give students time to study on their own to make students more creative and innovative. Undergraduates will use the time saved to do field work or course projects.
This new direction is necessary as information is growing rapidly and students have to be taught how to acquire knowledge instead of being spoonfed.
(30/8/96)
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