The Star – More schools open up to ICT

BY HARIATI AZIZAN

SEVEN years after the Education Ministry introduced the Smart School computer programme project at 88 schools, a total of 4,495 more are now equipped with computer labs, in line with the ministry’s Making Schools Smart programme.

An evolution of the pilot smart school project, the Making Schools Smart programme is built on the various ICT initiatives from the smart school project to educational television broadcast service (see chart)
However, according to the ministry’s Educational Technology Division (BTP) director Datuk Yusoff Harun, contrary to common belief, the Malaysian smart school is not one that is solely ICT rich but rather one that optimises ICT and other educational technology to help students learn effectively.

Early this year, 10 pilot schools in the Kalabakan area of Sabah were equipped with Internet-ready “Access Centres.” to give students and teachers more ICT exposure.

The success of this programme has led to the setting up of Access Centres in 74 other primary and secondary schools in the rural areas of Sabah and Johor.

The Access Centres are similar to cybercafes but they focus on learning and enabling students to work on their assignments.

This is different from the existing computer labs, which are used to conduct lessons for certain subjects and will be housed in a separate room.

Recently, Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein announced that up to 1,500 schools will be equipped with the Access Centres.

The implementation, which costs more than RM70mil, is the first phase of the project and will see the 1,500 schools receiving 15,000 personal computers, 1,500 printers as well as the necessary furniture.

Next year, another 1,290 schools will receive 10 computers each.

With the Access Centres, the ratio of computers to students would be reduced, allowing students more ICT access.

Access Centres could even be opened to the community as its local ICT centre.It is also hoped that the number of students frequenting cybercafes will be reduced when the Internet service in schools functions properly.

To assist schools manage their ICT facilities, the ministry is drawing up guidelines.

To ensure security, different insurance schemes for the computer labs are being studied.

The ministry has also promised that the schools without basic amenities would have power and water supply by 2010, and would have their generator sets upgraded during the interim period.

Original Story Link –
http://thestar.com.my/education/story.asp?file=/2006/11/5/education/15895598