KUALA LUMPUR: The Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) is working on a Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR4.0) Action Plan centred around four strategies to prepare the nation's human capital with the appropriate knowledge, skills set and values to face the dynamic challenges of the 21st century.
Its Deputy Minister Datuk Mansor Othman said the strategies are Strengthening Education Governance System towards IR4.0; Enhancing Education 4.0 Ecosystem; Developing Highly Skilled and Knowledgeable Talent for IR4.0; and Enhancing Research and Innovation Towards.
Mansor said it was time that great emphasis was placed on IR4.0 in an effort to embrace and gear up for the future and the framework will address the issues and challenges it brings.
The framework will, among others, address the need for universities to enforce their roles in shaping future technology by being the testbeds for innovation and educating future generations; look into the ever changing landscape that causes dynamic changes in industry's needs; study the fact that 65 per cent of children entering primary school today will end up working in completely new job types that do not yet exist; as well as the need to enhance the innovation culture in Malaysia.
"The framework consolidates all the initiatives we have done and we are going to embark on with focus on Education 4.0 where we aim to have educators as facilitator, embrace new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), provide a future- ready curriculum, lifelong learning for all and producing multi skilled and multi disciplinary learners for the future job market.
"It will require an approach and an ecosystem that optimises the relationships among process, talent and technology. To bring together a successful framework, a well co-ordinated implementation plan followed by monitoring is crucial.
"Under the four strategies, 13 initiatives and 38 programmes have been put forward which includes those that have been implemented and to be implemented in the future," said Mansor today.
Mansor said this when delivering his keynote address at the National Education and Learning Summit 2020 themed Rethinking Malaysian Education: Gearing Up for the 4th Industrial Revolution.
The one-day summit was held at Berjaya Times Square, here. Among those present were KSI Strategic Institute for Asia Pacific president Tan Sri Dr Michael Yeoh, National Association of Private Educational Institutions president Associate Prof Elajsolan Mohan and Malaysian Association of Private Colleges and Universities president Datuk Parmjit Singh.
Mansor said universities should prepare curriculum, academicians and students for the IR4.0 wave which is set to reduce the gap between the digital and physical world.
Academias, he said, should weigh their capabilities on efforts to equip the current generation with the latest knowledge and skills to face future realism by enhancing the approach and methods of education.
The latest technologies, added Mansor, such as Big Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality and Internet of Things, Cloud Computing and other advancements need to be focused for students to learn its application.
"The evidence of dramatic change is all around us and it is happening at exponential speed. Future workers will need to be highly trained in the emerging technologies but equally important are the values associated with using those technologies.
"In the future, we must not only possess the ability to develop technology but also to know whether, when and where to use it.
"Transforming the Malaysian higher education sector for IR4.0 is not a short term process as many institutions have experienced significant challenges.
"A supportive policy environment is required over the next decade to provide transformative education and allow them to execute these long term strategies to drive the IR4.0 agenda for human capital development requirements.
"We must all work together in a more concerted manner in bringing our higher education system to a greater height. As the future is a challenging one, we need to be resilient, versatile and adaptable to change.
"As the IR4.0 takes place today, we require a thorough preparation that will get us moving forward and ready face this challenge," said Mansor.