Ict for Education in Rural Malaysia

Sekolah Menegah Kebangsaan (SMK) Tenom in a remote part of Sabah state boasts a wireless connection and computer-aided programmes for its students. This connection is meant to help these students keep pace with others in larger, more privileged districts in the state and across Malaysia.

Abdul Aziz Mohamed Zain Headmaster of SMK Tenom says having ICT in place has promoted excellence in teaching and enhanced students’ learning. “Students are excited about using computers in their lessons. Interest in learning and computer skills has improved.”

Under the 9th Malaysia Plan, the Education Ministry has allocated US$6.3 million for the replacement of ICTequipment and infrastructure.

Recently, the internet service speed has been upgraded by the ministry from 2MB to 4MB and this infrastructure is shared by primary and boarding school students. Currently, there are 80 personal computers located in the computer labs, a kiosk, offices and classrooms. On average, one personal computer is allocated to every 13 students.

Other than using ICT in school subjects, students are exposed to applications such as Microsoft Word, Excel, Flash and downloadable online software.


Article Link (Click Here)

Putrajaya's Tunnel Vision on Ict

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 15 — Budget 2011 has just been tabled: What does it offer our local information and communications technology (ICT) sector? What is glaring in the Budget is not what it offers (very little) but what it lacks — decisive measures to grow our local talent in the sector and build our supposed K-economy.
In a statement earlier in the day, Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) CEO Datuk Badlisham Ghazali highlighted the industry’s own wish-list for the budget:
•    Tax or fiscal incentives for the private sector to embrace new technologies such as green/sustainable technology
•    Public-private partnership investments
•    Spending to strengthen the current ICT human capital pool
•    Incentives to increase ICT adoption by SMEs
What did the sector receive? All mobile phones are no longer subject to a 10 per cent sales tax. Broadband equipment will continue to be exempt from tax and duties until 2012. There were also plenty of incentives to encourage the take-up of green technologies and reduction of duties for hybrid cars.
On the funding side, a RM100 million Malaysian Technology Development fund will be set up to provide soft loans to qualified applicants. Though seemingly generous, it is a paltry sum compared to the RM3 billion that will be invested in an eco-resort in Sabah.
Yet the body in charge of managing the fund doesn’t see it that way. CEO of Cradle Fund, Nazrin Hassan said, “We see the government’s plans to encourage a healthy angel investment community as a clear indication to reduce the dependence on grant funding.” Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak spoke at length during his speech about the government’s efforts to bring in venture capitalists and angel investors to engage the local sector.
Content is king
The budget also allocates money through training — MDec is being given an allocation of RM50 million to train graduates in ICT.
Datuk Abdul Wahab Abdullah, president and chief executive of Mimos, said such measures would “ensure an adequate supply of domain experts for the country” and was a step in the right direction to ensure Malaysia has a pool of experts with the right skills.
A further RM119 million will be given to the Multimedia Development Corridor, to “encourage the development of local content creation”. But what of the other ICT sectors? What about developers, systems integrators or hardware manufacturers?
Yusseri Md Yusoff, CEO of open source solutions company Omnilogic, said that the government’s focus on multimedia was likely because “it’s a more visible success story.” Multimedia content, he said, was far easier to promote and the sector’s strides made far more waves locally than say, software developers.
Another oft-neglected area was the talent already existent in the country. Most skilled, technical people in ICT often prefer the freedom and better remuneration of independent consulting.
“Let’s put it this way, “ said independent consultant Dinesh Nair, “in four years, a technical person would earn less than half what someone working in sales would earn in the same firm.”
Malaysian companies, he noted, also tend to provide few incentives salary-wise for these skilled professionals to take up full-time work
Dinesh said that instead of the proposed Talent Corp, more effort should be made to retain local talent.
“The ones who left, they left. What the government needs to do is acknowledge the talent that is already here,” he said.
Earlier, Najib said “We are not dreamers. We are realists.”
The reality is that ICT is not and should not be limited to the local content industry. A K-economy requires knowledge workers of all specialisations and rather than attempt to woo back those lost to us, perhaps it is time the government see the resources it does have.
Should the government fail to acknowledge the hidden wealth of talent in ICT, it is doomed to keep losing its best and brightest.

** ict

Malaysian ICT to grow as economy recovers, says minister

Malaysia’s information and communications technology (ICT) sector could grow by 7% if economic recovery and business confidence continues, says Malaysia’s Science, Technology and Information Minister Dr Maximus Johnity Ongkili. ICT contributed as much as RM48 billion (US$15.8 billion) or 10% of Malaysia’s GDP in 2007, but only RM40 billion ($13.2 billion) last year.

Before the financial crisis ICT in Malaysia had been projected to grow 10% per year, one of Asia’s fastest, he said.Ongkili made his comments at Mimos, a major R&D center for ‘frontier technologies’ and advisor to the Malaysian government, which focuses on technology that can be commercialized for growth. Mimos yesterday held a ceremony to transfer technology platforms to three local companies to be developed for market by the private sector: Jaring Communications Sdn Bhd, Mutiara.com and Smart Computing Sdn Bhd.

Six other Malaysian companies also signed deals to licence and develop Mimos’ technology: Disability Solutions Sdn Bhd, Alam Teknokrat Sdn Bhd, Innovision Business Solutions Sdn Bhd, Phytofolia Sdn Bhd, Quantum Beez Sdn Bhd and Fabtronic Sdn Bhd.

131 ‘WiFi Villages’ for Sandakan

Meanwhile, in Malaysia’s far eastern city of Sandakan, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said it was halfway through a project to provide minimal-charge wireless internet access to 131 area villages, enabling urban and rural populations equal access to online services. MCMC has also distributed 49,800 netbooks to students in Sabah province on Borneo under the 1Malaysia project.

Zaimah izzati

ICT empowering citizens of Malaysia Development with Destiny

Malaysia, an upper-middle economic state in SouthEast Asia, found its connectivity with the world with the installation of the first telephone line in 1874. The country developed its first computer system in 1966 and since then several initiatives to facilitate the integration of ICT in different areas have been introduced. The privatisation of the telecom sector in 1987, and the formation of the NTP (National Telecom policy) in 1994, led to the full liberalisation of the market. The enactment of the Communi-cations and Multimedia act in 1998 established the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (regulator) in support of national policy objectives. The regulator provides for economic, technical, consumer and social regulation ensuring competitiveness, licensing, frequency allocation, affordability and availability of ICT technologies and services. Framework for development (FID) is a five year rolling plan for ICT development. The country now faces the dilemma of ensuring global competitiveness as well as access to all.


Facing challenges

ICT infrastructure development in Malaysia has been concentrated mainly in the urban areas. Even in the urban sector itself some areas are highly developed as compared to others. Regional differences in economic development and population density across the country have also resulted in some areas are considerably lagging behind. About 89 out of 136 districts in the country have been identified as undeserved. According to MEWC, about 3000 villages are not connected to the country's communication infrastructure.


The divide exists due to illiteracy, low incomes, amongst physically challenged people and due to difference in ethnicity, gender marginalising people whose access to ICT services is limited. Relatively low PC ownership has also been a reason for low access. The urban-poor of the country are also disadvantaged digitally.


The country is a federation of 13 states and 3 federal states. According to estimates the 'Bumiputeras' have low incomes and low education levels and suffer the most due to knowledge divide as well as digital divide. Data suggests that the states of Kedah, Sabah, Sarawak, Terengganu, Kelantan, Perlis and Pehang have more than 50 percent people in rural areas and also the highest percentage of 'Bumiputeras' in their population constitution. Thus they lag behind the rest of the country in terms of ICT.


Political instability is also sometimes experienced, especially in the states like Sabah which has the chief minister changing after every two years (so that all ethnic communities are equally represented) and Kelantan which is the only state not ruled by the BN party alliance.  It is evident that political stability poses great hindrance to the growth in most countries around the developing world. Also, according to sources, Sabah has had an inequitable distribution of wealth between the state and federal government, which has adversely affected progress. The state of ICT in these states is below the national level. These states have low tele-density values and high number of undeserved areas. Sabah and Sarawak are the poorest states in Malaysia with the highest unemployment rates and have been the targets for many a development schemes.


'Vision' with ICT – mission for knowledge
In the recent past, there has been lot of arguments on how to close the digital divide, while access to all is essential, it doesn't meet the purpose. Effectively, meaning that when people on the wrong side of the digital divide will be able to use technology to their benefit in a manner similar to everyone else, only then the gap will close.


Malaysia has taken a pro-active approach to solve the issue. This is especially evident in the 8th and 9th Malaysia plans wherein the government has taken policy initiatives and with the help of private partners, several programmes for deploying ICT infrastructure have been started in remote areas. To enable Malaysia's growth into a knowledge society, various plans- NITA '96 and Vision 2020 have been initiated. ICT has been recommended as being strategic for development.


The Vision 2020 plan envisions Malaysia as a developed country by 2020 with the establishment of a K (knowledge)-community. Special emphasis has been given to development of infrastructure and potential human capital by involving state, local governments as well as the private-public community. ICT plans for universal access, content development, affordability, lifelong learning have been started. RM 1098 million was allocated for ICT- related activities for bridging the Digital Divide with RM10 million for local content development in the 8th Malaysian plan.


A Strategic Thrust Implementation Committee (STIC) has been set up to monitor the implementation of plans. 60 initiatives have been implemented upto 2002. Malaysian Administration, Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU) has been set up within the Prime Minister's office as the lead agency in the public sector for ICT development. MSC has also established some key projects: e-Governance, multipurpose cards, smart schools, tele-health, R&D clusters, e-Business, etc.

ICT malaysia

Issues and challenges in integrating ICT in teaching and learning in our Malaysian Schools.

In line with the country’s information and communication technology (ICT) master plan and vision 2020, Malaysia recognized that the transformation of its education system is fundamental to achieve its objectives. The Ministry of Education, with the participation of non-governmental agencies, is focusing on the development of new media for use as educational. Due to its belief that ICT can make a changes in education and learning, the Ministry plans to integrate ICT into education on a fundamental level, incorporating systems to facilitate management, information gathering, access, and various forms of communication. However, there are some issues and challenges integrating ICT in teaching and learning in our Malaysian Schools.


In my opinion, the biggest challenger in integrating ICT in our Malaysian schools is, the appropriate rooms or buildings available to house the technology are needed and of course, the equipments. The government will spend a lot of cost to build the appropriate buildings in Malaysian schools. Another basic requirement is the availability of electricity and telephony. In Malaysia, some developing areas are still without a reliable supply of electricity and the nearest telephones are miles away such as at the Sabah and Sarawak. There might be no problem in the urban area, but how with the people who lived in the rural area? Some of the family still did not have a computer in their house. Thus, their child can not practice what that they have learned in the school at their house. This is such a waste when the students forgot what that they have learned. For instance, a basic requirement for computer-based or online learning is access to computers in schools, communities, and households, as well as affordable Internet service are needed.


Secondly, the teacher professional development should have skills in teaching the students using the ICT with particular application. Ideally, these should be addressed in pre-service teacher training and built on and enhanced in-service. ICTs are evolving technologies, and so even the most ICT fluent teachers need to continuously upgrade their skills and keep abreast of the latest developments and best practices. Some student might feel uncomfortable with the new technologies especially student in the rural area where most of the ICT application use the English language for the contents and it is the responsibility of the teacher to guide and teach them to use the computer.


Implementing academic computing is a long and expensive process. It may take many years for Malaysian schools to be successful. Although funding is an important factor, many other factors must be taken into account before and during the implementation of academic computing initiatives. Failure to address important issues may result in wasted resources and ineffective implementation. However, implementing ICT the education is a good way to increase the development in Malaysia. Thus, government should take more appropriate ways to ensure that the vision 2020 can be achieve.

Zaimah izzati