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Education IT

Making Malaysia's Schools Smarter

By Kelly Ng | 30 April 2010

There are good reasons to pay attention to Malaysia’s education master plan. Students’ performance shows that the government is doing something right.

The academic performance of Malaysian students improved across all national examinations in core subjects – Language, Mathematics and Science. Compared to assessment scores in 1997 before the launch of the Smart School programme, Primary School scores increased by 11.4 per cent last year, Lower Secondary scores by 6.4 per cent and Malaysian Certificate of Education scores by 3.4 per cent.

A recent independent study confirmed that students from Smart Schools do better. The study compared outcomes and characteristics of 2743 students from Smart Schools and Non Smart Schools in five nonacademic performance areas: creative perception, critical thinking, integrated science process, multiple intelligence perception and ICT knowledge. Students from Smart Schools have significantly higher scores than students from Non Smart Schools in four of the five categories.

Launched in 1999, the Smart School concept aims to use ICT to reinvent learning and teaching to meet Malaysia’s broader goals of transforming itself into a knowledge driven economy. Looking back at the last 10 years, Tan Sri Dato’ Dr Zulkurnain Hj Awang, Secretary General, Ministry of Education (MOE) believes Malaysia has made excellent progress.

Much of MOE’s initial efforts were focused on establishing infrastructure. “Billions of Ringgit has been spent to wire up and connect schools. We even had to transport diesel using helicopter to get electricity to the more remote schools,” says Awang. All 10,000 schools now have access to the internet.

Technology is a great leveller, added Awang. Access to knowledge and the experience of teachers differ significantly between urban and remote schools. Previously, the only source of knowledge is the teacher. And since the urban schools tend to attract better teachers, students in rural schools are disadvantaged. “ICT can play a big role in bridging this gap,” he says.

MOE launched EduWebTV.com so students from both rural and urban schools can see good teachers speak on difficult topics. “We have eight channels with more than 1900 videos that children, parents and teachers can access for free. If we find a topic particularly tricky, we get a teacher who specialises in that area, film the lesson and post it up on the web site,” describes Datin Dr. Siti Zaleha Abdullah Sani, Director, Educational Technology Division, MOE. EduWebTV.com has clocked 22 million hits since it started in March 2008.

The impact of the Smart School programme is most noticeable in rural areas. Schools with computers and internet access quickly become focal points of remote communities. Residents in the area use the school’s IT facilities to get information and send emails. “Introducing technology into schools will have a cascading effect to the whole of society,” Awang observes.

To encourage rural schools to benefit from this scheme, 50 rural schools have recently been selected to be role-models. “The initial 88 role models selected in 2006 were very advanced in the adoption of IT. We are now in the third phase of making all schools – including rural ones – smart by 2010. Therefore, it will be more beneficial to have rural schools share their experiences and best practices because other rural schools can relate better to them,” says Datuk Badlisham Ghazali, CEO, Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC), which is co-leading the Smart School project with MOE.

In recent years, focus has shifted from IT infrastructure to whether teachers and learners are using IT effectively. “The critical success factor has moved from just providing hardware and software to building the capacity among users,” says Sani. “We need to help teachers get familiar with ICT tools and learn how to make pedagogical judgements to optimise the use of these tools.”

The desire for true transformation in learning using IT led to the implementation of the Smart School Qualification Standards (SSQS). With so much development across the country, it makes sense to have a monitoring tool to measure the use of ICT in schools, explains Ghazali. Schools are given Star Ranking each year based on their performance in four areas – use of ICT, competency of end-users, adoption of applications provided by MOE and IT infrastructure.

As of October 2009, MOE has awarded ‘Smart School’ rating to 7575 schools. This means they have achieved at least three stars. Dr Norrizan Razali, Senior Manager, Smart School Department, MDeC explains the Star Rankings: “A three-star school has adopted technology. Its teachers ‘plug and play’ content or electronic courseware provided by MOE. It merely adopts ICT with little or no enhancement customisation of the material to suit its needs. This is good. But we want schools to re-create, collaborate and share materials within themselves and with other schools or the greater community. This is what they need to do to achieve four or five star.” Of the 7575 Smart Schools, 67 per cent are at three-star ranking, 32 per cent at four-star and 1 per cent at five-star.

SSQS is an effective tool for MOE and MDeC to monitor and manage progress. It clearly identifies gaps between Smart Schools and Non Smart Schools and sheds light on the path to making all schools smart by 2010. “SSQS allows us to know whether the school is using ICT and whether it is using it at the desired level. It highlights the strengths and weaknesses of each school and helps us to decide the next step in supporting them,” says Razali.

From the perspective of a policy maker, Sani believes SSQS is critical for implementing policies in schools. “MOE can develop and issue policies, but they are useless until schools operationalise them. ‘ICT for teaching and learning’ are big words. What does it mean on the ground, for teachers? SSQS fills this gapby breaking it down into actionable items.”

“More needs to be done,” concludes Awang. It is not going to be an easy journey, but fortunately much help can be expected. “Everyone is a stakeholder when it comes to education. Particularly, the private sector can play a big role in supporting schools. Providing hardware and software to schools is one way. It is a win-win situation since students are future clients,” he notes. The private sector is also in a good position to share knowledge and expertise on technology and how it can enhance education.

Looking at the progress to date, MOE and MDeC are confident it can achieve its goal of making all 10,000 schools smart by 2010. The next phase would be to consolidate and stabilise the programme by 2020, making former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s vision of a transformed education system a reality.

SMART TEACHERS
How does the Smart School programme translate to actions on the ground? FutureGov speaks to four Principals from both urban and rural schools.

Siaw Oi Ching, Head Mistress, Mah Hua National Type Primary Chinese School It was challenging initially because teachers see IT integration as additional work. The initial reluctance gradually disappeared with training courses and understanding how IT can benefit the students. Today, our 28 teachers create digital teaching materials which are customised for the 463 students.

Karrkaney A/P Alagarasamy, Principal, Vageesar National Type Primary Tamil School Our teachers now use Gmail to communicate among themselves and with parents. The transition took about two to three months. They have also started using blog for teaching. Students are fast adopters – they used IT to work on a project which was awarded first prize in a state science fair.

Nor Shahar, Principal, Cherok Paloh National Primary School We are still relatively new in terms of ICT adoption. We have received a lot of help in terms of IT infrastructure and facilities. Currently, a pilot project is underway – to put examination online for our 23 Year Six students. It has been well-received by both teachers and students. We even see an improvement in results.

Shamsida Binti Mohd Nor, Principal, Ampang Pecah National Secondary School Being a rural school, we see huge potential for technology to be integrated into our curriculum. Students and teachers are very interested in IT. We have selected 30 students who have shown keen interest for further training. They are trained in Microsoft programmes and communication tools.

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