Digitalisation important to improve quality of education

PAGOH: Malaysia needs to accelerate the move towards digitalisation of the education system to improve the quality of education in the country.

Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the Covid-19 pandemic saw students unable to go to school and had to attend lessons from home.

"One lesson we learned from the pandemic is that we do not have the ability to create an education system that can cater to this need as we don't have the facilities for students to learn online.

"The number of parents who can afford to provide the devices to their children are also limited," said Muhyiddin.

On efforts to improve the quality of the education system, he said, one could not help but to think about an ecosystem where teachers and students are equipped with devices that enabled them to teach and learn anywhere.

"This means we need to move towards the digital education system where the hardware and software are available to enable our children to learn regardless of the situation.

"Imagine if we can provide this complete environment, either in school or university, it would boost the education system," said Muhyiddin.

He said this in his speech at the Jom Ke Sekolah Parlimen Pagoh dan DUN Gambir programme, a corporate social responsibility event by Yayasan Pelajaran Mara.

As a start, the prime minister said he had instructed Senior Education Minister Datuk Dr Radzi Jidin to set up a special high level committee on the digitalisation of education.

"The digitalisation not only involves the provision of devices but also preparing the human resources needed like teachers, and the contents that the students will use," said Muhyiddin.

He said the digitalisation process could not be achieved if the country does not have good Internet access and interconnectivity.

"That is why is recently launched the MyDigital initiative that would provide us with 5G Internet network soon."

Muhyiddin also announced that the United Arab Emirates is willing to help Malaysia in the education digitalisation process.

"During my visit to Dubai recently, I met with Crown Prince Mohamad and spoke to him about our education digitalisation efforts but before I finished, he said 'it's all done',"

"What does this means, I think UAE, which are rich with oil, might be willing to help us with the digitalisation process," said Muhyiddin.

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