Prepare to evolve, adapt to needs

Idris (front row, third from right) with the speakers and participants of a conference, doing the “Soaring Upwards” wave. It is the ministry’s tagline and used to portray Malaysia’s higher education landscape that is progressively improving. — File photo

FOR five years Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh has been an Education Minister.

First, as the second minister within the Education Ministry and then as the minister of Higher Education when the Education Ministry was split into two.

Idris, who is also the MP for Besut, Terengganu, says his heart lies in education and the work he does with the ministry.

Together with his famous tagline “Soaring Upwards”, he has launched many initiatives at the Higher Education Ministry.

“All the initiatives are based on the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2015-2025 (Higher Education).

“The blueprint is very holistic and shows what we need to do for the students and that is what we are doing,” he stresses.

This year, the ministry has set “Higher Education 4.0: Knowledge, Industry, Humanity” as its theme.

The theme was chosen in recognition that the fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) will have an impact on our Higher Education system especially in terms of jobs, humanity and the industry.

“Therefore it is important that all stakeholders are prepared to evolve and adapt to the demands and needs of 4IR,” he tells StarEducate.

To do so, the ministry has been implementing a few new policies and ideas to push the higher education sector into the 4IR.

One of them is by “redesigning learning spaces” which Idris says means incorporating more technology into the classroom.

Even the way the classroom is laid out will be changed to encourage more interaction between the lecturers and students.

Learning commons and makerspaces can offer authentic learning experiences that simulate real-world challenges.

These learning spaces act as innovative hubs that enable students to study, discover, create, collaborate and socialise effectively.

However, in order to make sure the classroom has been purposefully redesigned, three factors need to be considered - pedagogy, space and technology.

The use of 4IR technology (e.g. Internet-of-things, drones, robots) combined with the appropriate pedagogical and learning approaches such as challenge-based learning, heutagogy, cybergogy and paragogy can make learning spaces smarter.

Heutagogy, he explains is student-directed learning that focuses on students’ independent learning experience.

Paragogy involves students’ interaction with their peers in accomplishing their educational goals. They discover and share the learning contents among themselves through the co-creation of communities of learning.

The digital media is used to connect with each other, to co-construct knowledge and to co-learn.

In line with the advancement brought by 4IR, cybergogy promotes new teaching and learning practices in the virtual environment.

“Higher education institutions can utilise these technologies such as big data to enhance students’ experience in learning and teaching

“For example, learning analytics can be used to provide personalised teaching where focus can be given on strengthening their weaknesses based on their learning outcome.”

The ministry has also implemented a new policy this year where 30% of a course curriculum needs to be “fluid and organic.”

“It would depend on the situation, it depends on what is the latest technology, what is the latest news, what is the latest knowledge that we have,” he adds.

He explains that this means higher education institutions would only need to present 70% of a course’s curriculum to obtain MQA approval.

The other 30% must be based on the current situation and happenings in the world, he explains.

“We need to look at education differently because the gig economy says things are changing almost everyday.

“So, we need to be current, we need to renew ourselves all the time.”

Idris also says that the ministry is moving towards using alternative forms of assessment to gauge a student’s progress.

Also known as holistic assessment, it is used to determine what students can and cannot do, in contrast to what they do or do not know.

In other words, Idris says it measures applied proficiency more than it measures knowledge.

There are several types of alternative assessments such as real-time assessments, authentic assessments, challenge-based assessments, profiling assessments, he adds.

Redesigning learning

None of these changes can take place if the academic staff are not ready to carry them out.

To combat this problem, Idris says interested lecturers have joined the Educator 4.0 programme.

“It will engage the academics from higher learning institutions in rethinking teaching and redesigning learning through experiential learning, blended learning and virtual learning experience.

It promotes interactive and immersive learning in order to remain relevant to the constantly changing needs of digital natives and exponential change of technology.”

Idris also says the ministry wants to move away from the notion that universities exist to fill the needs of the industry. Although meeting industry demands is crucial, he adds that it is equally important to produce historians, philosophers and thinkers.

“We want to balance it out, that’s what education is all about,” he explains.

In an effort to inculcate a deeper sense of humanity, students are now encouraged to take part in volunteerism projects.

He says students can also take part in National Service or other volunteer projects during their gap year.

The plans in the blueprint are still ongoing but so far, there has been good feedback from parents, students and society.

“So far, universities have (also) been very receptive and they are changing. Some changing faster than others,” he says.

All of these initiatives were carried out for the benefit of the students and society and Idris is sure that the ministry is still Soaring Upwards.

Not only have the local universities grown in leaps and bounds in international rankings, graduate employability has also gone up.

Idris says that graduate employability has gone up from 75% to 79.1% over the past four years.

“It proves we are better than New Zealand, Australia, the Philippines and Indonesia,” he points out.

Although it is uncertain whether Idris will continue to helm this ministry after the upcoming general elections, he has some words of wisdom for his successor:

“Just follow the blueprint. It is a good blueprint and I am proud to hold that blueprint throughout the world. It’s very holistic, it tells you what to do,” he says.

“If you follow the blueprint, you cannot go wrong.”