Education Ministry: Country's online learning implementation strategy in final stages of preparation

KUALA LUMPUR: The Education Ministry is in its final stages of formulating an implementation strategy for online learning as schools remain closed during the Covid-19 pandemic, says Datuk Dr Mah Hang Soon.

The Deputy Education Minister said to improve Internet access for schools, infrastructure development and telecommunication network upgrades would be implemented under the National Digital Infrastructure Plan (Jendela), involving a total of 430 schools nationwide.

"The Education Ministry will also implement a pilot project for mobile device ownership involving 150,000 students in 500 schools.

"This programme will enable students to participate in online learning more effectively," he told Gobind Singh Deo (PH-Puchong) during Question Time.

Gobind had asked about the ministry's plans over schools' readiness for digital education and the implementation of online education during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mah said teaching and learning activities (PdP) could not be done physically as schools are closed due to the enforcement of the MCO.

"However, the Education Ministry has provided other access to education for students via home-based learning, according to the teacher's and student's suitabilities," he said.

He also noted that the ministry had provided the Digital Educational Learning Initiative Malaysia (Delima) platform, aimed at providing various resources for teachers to support online teaching and learning.

"As of now, a total of 485 digital textbooks have been uploaded on Delima.

"Aside from that, a total of 1,591 educational videos were uploaded on the EduwebTV portal and a total of 6,585 educational videos have been shared by teachers in the CikgooTube portal, which was tagged in the Delima platform for students and teachers," added Mah.

The Education Ministry, he said, had also provided Internet access with a minimum speed of 30mbps and 100mbps to a total of 10,066 schools.

"The ministry is also in the midst of providing Internet connection via Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT), at a minimum speed of 30Mbps, to 141 schools that have no Internet connection due to lack of connectivity infrastructure.

"The implementation of the VSAT is expected to be completed in March 2021," he said.

However, for students who do not have access to the Internet or suitable devices for online learning, he said that PdP could still be accessed via TV Pendidikan, at the TV Okey RTM and Tutor TV Astro channels.

He also revealed that the ministry had conducted a study on the Implementation Effectiveness Home Based Learning between Oct 20 to 28,2020, involving school administrators, teachers, students and parents.

"The study is aimed at reviewing the effectiveness of PdP at home, including online learning.

"The study shows that a wide use of applications and devices consistently during PdP at home had increased the skills and capabilities of students in terms of information technology and communications.

"However, the study results do not reflect the increase in skills and efficiency of students in general, as it only involves students who have devices at home," said Mah.

In facing the current challenges, Mah urged the cooperation of all parties, including students, teachers and parents to support all initiatives implemented by the government, especially by the Education Ministry.

"Each measure set by the Ministry is to ensure that the future generation will have the access to the best education, despite the challenging situation," he said.