KUALA LUMPUR: The Education Ministry plans to expand the hybrid class pilot project to an additional 400 classes in selected schools in urban and rural areas next year.
Deputy Education Minister Wong Kah Woh told the Dewan Rakyat that it was part of the ministry's efforts to develop digital skills within the learning ecosystem.
He said this has been implemented in 110 selected educational institutions, including rural schools.
The move was in line with Core 4: Empowering Infrastructure and Infostructure under the National Education Policy.
"This initiative started in 2021 with 550 classes, with these smart classesbeing equipped with smartboard technology, digital equipment, smart televisions, camera sets and voice recorders," he said in response to Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh (PH-Ledang).
Syed Ibrahim asked about the progress made in developing digital skills among students in rural schools and the approaches to be taken to solve the issue of lack of digital equipment in rural schools.
Wong said the ministry measures the students' digital skills through the Digital Competency Score Report (DCS), with the average score for rural school students being 3.24 out of 5.00, compared to the national average score of 3.31.
"The average score for urban school students shows a higher score of 3.34 out of 5.00," he said.
Regarding Internet access, Wong said the ministry has initiated a new procurement for Internet services for the period of July this year to June 2025, which includes schools in rural areas.
"Specifically for rural schools, the ministry has empowered 367 Teachers'Activity Centres and 16 Educational Resources and Technology Sector nationwide."
He said the ministry is committed to continuously improve technology- and digital-based learning systems in both urban and rural areas.
On the digital competency of teachers, Wong said 306,338 teachers screened as of last month were classified as advanced, 86,062 were basic and 272,179 intermediate.
Wong said the ministry acknowledged certain teachers who have reached an advanced level in digital competency as Guru Jauhari Digital.'