Education Ministry planning new curriculum to meet IR4.0 needs, says Maszlee

Dr Maszlee reminded universities to always support the students as long as it did not contravene the law or university regulations.

KUALA LUMPUR (Bernama): The academic curriculum must be in tune with the needs of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR4.0), says Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik.

He said a command of the English language was vital in the era of IR4.0 as new specialised areas will be opened up for future generations. 

“We have to admit that the language of technology and the IR4.0 is based on English.

“Sciences, all the computing, coding, robotic, these subjects depend on English. If we want to master all those segments and specialities, we (must) do it in English.

“In the face of the IR4.0 era, we have to deal with expertise which never existed before, many new fields. So we need to equip our children with IR4.0 technologies,” he told reporters at a press conference held after launching the Malaysia Education Blueprint (2013 - 2025) Annual Report 2018 at the Bank Negara here Monday (July 29).

On the report, Maszlee said there were several successes, including increased enrolment in national pre-schools from 84.3% in 2017 to 85.4% in 2018.

In addition, the "Sifar Cicir Murid" programme which targeted dropouts in both primary and secondary schools reduced dropout rates by 26.1% for secondary schools and 25.6% for primary schools.

He said via the 21st Century Learning (PAK 21) and Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS), the ministry increased the number of HOTS schools that achieved "excellence" level to 67% (189 out of 282 schools) last year compared with 4.6% (13 out of 282 schools) in 2017.

“We also upgraded dilapidated schools threefold, from 120 in 2017, to 394 in 2018,” he said.

On a separate development, Maszlee said his ministry would not be amending the schooling hours throughout the country and advised parents to ensure the safety of their children while travelling to school.

He said the ministry would keep the current school hours and there were no plans to change them to earlier or later.

"The ministry is keeping to the current schooling hours, we never made them earlier. So parents and the community should pay attention to the welfare of their children and other children in the surrounding areas,” he said.

He was commenting on a local report about the lack of lighting along routes to schools, which could be potentially dangerous to students leaving early for the morning school session, as they could be the targets of criminals. – Bernama