MUAR, Mar 27: An important lesson that Malaysia learnt from the Covid-19 pandemic is that it is not ready to switch to an education system needed at times like this, said Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.
As a result, he said the Covid-19 pandemic which hit the country since early last year has affected the quality of the country’s education system.
In view of this, Muhyiddin wants the education ministry to expedite the national education digitalisation programme to enable more students to have access to high-quality education.
“Students are unable to go to school and are instructed to stay at home to prevent the spread of Covid-19. One lesson we learnt from this pandemic is that we do not have the ability to commence an education system that can accommodate the needs at times like this.
“Even if we have the facilities that allow our students to learn virtually, the number of parents who can provide laptops, computers, tablets to their children is quite limited,” Bernama reported him as saying.
Muhyiddin, who is the Pagoh MP and Gambir assemblyman, was speaking at a Yayasan Pelajaran Mara corporate social responsibility programme at the Pagoh Sports Complex today.
He said the move towards digitalisation of education has already started and that he had instructed education minister Radzi Jidin to set up a special committee to speed up the transition of the current education system to digital.
The prime minister said the change towards digitalisation would not only involve devices, but also human resources, including the teaching staff, as well as the content of teaching materials to be used by students, which should be of high quality.
He said the process, however, could not be fully achieved if the country did not have internet accessibility and connectivity.
“That’s why I recently announced the MyDigital initiative to provide us with 5G internet network facilities soon,” he said.
He said a suitable ecosystem should be considered to provide students and teachers with learning tools that can be accessed from anywhere.
