ICT now a teaching tool

By ALYCIA LIM

educate@thestar.com.my

Audio aid: Muhyiddin trying the Audiocity software at the launching of the Policy on Information Technology and Communication in Education in Putrajaya yesterday. Looking on is Education Ministry Director- General Tan Sri Alimuddin Md Dom (right).

PUTRAJAYA: The education policy in the country has taken a new leap forward and it is set to embrace Information and Communications Technology (ICT) as the main tool for teaching, said Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
The policy aims to use ICT as a vehicle to encourage creativity, collaborative learning, critical thinking and problem solving skills.
“The teaching and learning process is no longer a teacher centric or one-way process. A teacher is now a classroom facilitator, who is equipped with ICT knowledge,’’ Muhyiddin said, adding that the new approach would uplift the quality of education in the country.
“Through this policy, all ICT programmes in the ministry will work towards the same goal, which is to increase student achievements and to ensure that every student has access to quality education.”

At the launch of the new ICT policy in education yesterday, Muhyiddin, who is also the Deputy Prime Minister, said that education ICT practices in developed countries would be used as a benchmark to ensure that the ICT component in Malaysian schools are of international standards.
The policy, which was developed by the ministry in collaboration with Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC), was a continuous effort from the Smart School initiative launched in July 1997.
The policy will focus on eight main fields, which include a structural realignment of ICT management, education administration and management, technology infrastructure, teaching and learning, and community involvement, amongst others.
He added that there would be four supporting components – third party outsourcing, collaboration with the community of practice, public and private partnership, and involvement of the extended community to ensure the policy’s effectiveness.
“The ICT policy in education will also go through a Central Management Programme which will be responsible in organising all the ICT initiatives in education, in order to increase administrative efficiency and to save resources.”
Muhyiddin hoped the policy would align the quality of Malaysian education to the vision of making Malaysia an excellent education hub, in line with the status of an advanced nation by the year 2020.