IN A letter to The Star earlier this month, a parent complained that the computers in his children's smart school were collecting dust.
"I remember four years ago when my daughter entered the school, the computers were hardly used and now they are never used at all."
Whether this is true in all the 88 schools in the country selected under the smart school project is hard to answer. However, recent signs have not been encouraging.
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Smart schools like SK Seri Bintang Utara are expected to be role models for the rest. |
Achieving set standards
The Smart School Qualification Standards (SSQS) was introduced last year to measure the use of information and communications technology (ICT) at the 88 smart schools. Schools are graded on their ICT strengths. They are then given star ratings, from one star (the lowest) to five stars.
In the initial survey, most of the smart schools are believed to have performed poorly with some barely obtaining a star.
The need to improve has become more urgent as the Education Ministry wants the 88 smart schools to become standard bearers for all 10,000 schools nationwide.
They are to act as role models for other schools on how to increase and maximise ICT usage under the ministry's Making Schools Smart initiative, where all schools are expected to be smart schools by 2010.
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Under the Education Ministry's Making Schools Smart initiative, all schools will be equipped with ICT infrastructure. |
MDeC senior manager (smart school) Dr Norrizan Razali says the SSQS is necessary.
"We need key performance indicators (KPIs) to monitor the types of ICT resources available, the extent and nature of professional development efforts undertaken, and the changes in teaching and learning practices in schools."
She says a more structured programme to monitor the use and outcomes of the technologies being applied was required "to prevent more slippages."
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The Smart School Qualification Standards (SSQS) was introduced to measure how successfully the 88 smart schools have integrated ICT into the school culture. |
"The other 41 schools need more coaching, monitoring and aggressive transformational programmes," explains Dr Norrizan, adding that they would receive special emphasis next year.
Under the SSQS, marks are given based on ICT utilisation (40%), human capital (30%), applications (20%) and technology infrastructure (10%).
There are 35 KPIs in total. Under ICT utilisation, the KPIs include student-to-PC contact hours, usage and integration of courseware by teachers for core subjects, and student completion of self-learning modules.
Under human capital, KPIs listed include IT co-ordinators' and teachers ICT competencies, in-house ICT training, and usage of e-mail, among others.
KPIs for applications include the use of at least five modules for management, Education Ministry courseware and a school website.For technology infrastructure, KPIs include PC-to-student ratio, PC-to-teacher ratio, PC accessibility and technology downtime.
MDeC has recruited 24 subject management experts (SMEs) to help the 47 smart schools achieve the five-star rating before the year ends. Each SME has been assigned to two schools.
"They will look at the position the schools are at and how they will reach the five-star ranking," says Dr Norrizan.
"Each SME needs to come up with a unique action plan as every school is different."
Exam-based system
Many would argue that the biggest obstacle to the full implementation of making schools smart is the obsession with exams and completing the syllabus.
Even Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said this in his keynote address at the International Smart School Conference 2007 on Monday.
The conference was held in conjunction with the third thrust of the National Education Blueprint 2006-2010, which is strengthening national schools, focusing on making schools smart.
"We can equip our schools and train our teachers with ICT but if the curriculum is still examination focused and geared towards memorisation and reproduction of facts and figures, our objectives will not be met,'' said Najib.
Educational Technology Division (BTP) director Datuk Yusoff Harun' says that schools need to move away from basic ICT skills and place more emphasis on collaborative learning projects.
"They should use the Internet as a learning tool. This way students and teachers can use all the skills they have learnt in a manner that is challenging and enjoyable."
A change in mindset is imperative, says Dr Norrizan, if smart schools are to meet their aims.
"Schools are constrained by an exam-oriented curriculum while teachers face the pressure of finishing the syllabus. This needs to be addressed in the long run."
SK Putrajaya Presint 9 (1) headmistress Nafishah Hassan says pupils at her smart school got the chance to work on a virtual field trip project, to find out more about the blue duck species with about 30 New Zealand schools last year.
"The project helped improve their English and communication skills.
"Even though it was not directly related to the school syllabus, pupils still learnt about environmental issues."
Under the project, Malaysian students followed online as LearnNZ teacher Audrie Mackenzie journeyed to the Oparara Basin of Kahurangi National Park to find out more about the blue duck. Mackenzie even visited the school in Putrajaya as part of the programme.
The pupils' participation was supported by online background materials and activities, and was enabled using live audio-conferencing, web board and diaries, images and videos uploaded daily.
Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein responded to Najib's call on a curriculum revamp by stating that changes to the exam-based system would start at the 30 cluster schools before being applied to the rest.
The smart school project components include the management system, teaching-learning materials, technology infrastructure, smart school assessment system, professionally trained teachers, systems integration, and support services.
While there are the naysayers, SMK (L) Methodist Kuala Lumpur (MBS) principal Wong Chee Kheon thinks the smart school initiative has been a success.
There has been increased awareness in society on the use of ICT as an effective tool in teaching and learning, he observes.
However, he also feels that the project was overly ambitious at the start.
"There were too many functions in the applications that did not help in the teaching-learning process or the management of the school," says Wong. Making schools smart
While the 88 smart schools will receive extra attention to enable them to be among the best in the world, the other 10,000 schools will not be left out under the Making Schools Smart initiative.
As Hishammuddin has stated, there will be a nationwide deployment of smart school teaching concepts, materials, skills and technologies to all schools.
"By 2010, the term 'smart' should be redundant as all schools, be they primary or secondary, will have been transformed into smart schools," he said at the official opening of the Smart School International Conference on Monday, adding that the training of personnel would be the most challenging task in achieving this aim.
By the end of last year, the ministry had set up more than 4,500 computer laboratories, provided 93% of schools with broadband Internet access through the SchoolNet project and given out 97,000 laptops and 70,000 LCD projectors.
Realising that the rate of ICT usage is critical to determining the "smartness" of schools, BTP is devising a tracking system to monitor this.
"We hope to put it in place by the end of this month. Although we do get feedback from schools on ICT usage, we need to know for sure.
"Many schools are not entirely truthful when filling up the forms. With this system, the real picture will emerge," says Yusoff.
Yusoff adds that other problems, such as the bandwidth available to schools are set to change with schools being provided with a higher capacity.
According to Nafishah, some of the newer courseware provided to the school cannot be used on the older PCs, most of which are over six years old.
"The ministry has appointed a company to look into which PCs need to be replaced and which upgraded," she says.
Her school has 416 PCs for its 1,093 pupils and is a "Class A" smart school.
The expansion of TV Pendidikan through Web TV will also enable schools to access programmes "on demand" through the Internet.
Yusoff acknowledges that the utilisation of this programme in urban schools is poor. However, he says, the situation is different in rural areas, where TV Pendidikan is a valuable resource.
Access centres – which feature the cybercafe concept – are also expected to boost ICT literacy. A total of 1,584 have been set up with the majority, 70%, being located in rural schools while 30% will be situated in urban areas.
Wong says that another challenge hampering ICT use in schools is the lack of technical expertise to maintain the systems.
Unlike the 88 smart schools, there is no technician on site in regular schools to deal with problems and no official IT coordinator's post. However, this is now changing as schools with access centres will get IT coordinators.
Wong says better coordination between the various agencies involved in the smart school initiative is needed.
"A thorough study of the workflow, processes and constraints faced by schools should be done if the programme is to be a success," he says.
As Dr Norrizan sees it, the biggest challenge to successful implementation will be the human element.
"The technical issues can easily be addressed with financial investment. Addressing the human aspects such as teachers and school leadership will be harder."
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