I was at used PC and PC rental company last week and its business owner told me that most demand during this COVID-19 period has been for notebook PC purchases and rentals by parents for their children to study online due to school closures during the movement control order (MCO).
This leaves school students with having to attend class online but as evidence has emerged not only in Malaysia but also in other countries, online education has its shortcomings in the real world of school education, especially at this time when a study by Khazanah Research Institute's (KRI) on how school closures since mid-March had disrupted formal learning for an estimated 4.9 million students in pre, primary and secondary schools nationwide.
Back in the late 1990s when Malaysia's Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC Malaysia) initiative to transform Malaysia, into an "information-rich, knowledge-based economy, high-income economy" by the year 2020 - i.e. this year, and proponents of computers in education in academia, computer and online learning system suppliers and various educational institutions were touting notions that computers in education and online distance learning would "free students from common, standardised classroom curriculum designed for the industrial age" and enable them to study a choice of subjects suited to their interests and at their own pace, which is "more suited to the information age".
That's the kind of befuddling gobbledegook spewed out by ICT industry CEOs, ICT industry marketing types, government officials, government ministers, even prime ministers, seminar speakers, new media CON-sultants, management CON-sultants, starry-eyed or opportunistic ICT and Internet futurists at ICT industry conferences, seminars, media conferences and so forth that I had to endure and faithfully regurgitate in my articles, till the point that well over 20 years later today, it gives me as a technical man - psychological trauma when attending such events, especially when I'm not one of those ICT journalists who drinks the ICT industry's Kool Aid or eats the industry's dog food.
Now The Star of 23 May 2020 reports National Union of the Teaching Profession Secretary-General Harry Tan says that disabled and students from underprivileged families will lose out due to insufficient access to online lessons during this MCO and CMCO period and that the government to galvanise aid from various parties across the nation to upgrade and provide Internet connectivity between students and teachers as soon as possible. In reponse to the KRI report, Tan also called for teachers to be retrained to master techniques of distance and online learning.
KRI noted that the closure of schools and shortfalls in teaching and learning activities during this health crisis had affected schoolchildren unevenly. Besides increasing broadband penetration, KRI report called upon the government to ensure all children have access to the needed devices, including making devices more affordable and accessible. It also called upon the government to urgently develop high-quality digital content, perhaps even translating appropriate foreign materials, and to equip teachers with the skills to more effectively use e-learning technologies.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education is in the midst of digitising educational material for schools and whilst noting that, former deputy education minister Datuk P. Kamalanathan said tha Ministry must find a way to expand the process to encapsulate learning from home, and that the issue of devices and connectivity has to be studied thoroughly and a comprehensive long-term solution has to be developed, and that a portion of the education budget must be allocated towards this and that private-public partnerships was a good way to boost online learning, the former Deputy-Minister said, adding that the uneven learning environment would translate to a wider gap between privileged and underprivileged (urban and rural) students if changes were not done now.
Melaka Action Group for Parents in Education (Magpie) chairman Mak Chee Kin called upon the government to upgrade Internet connectivity and raise awareness among parents to brush up on their children's digital skills, and that those in need should be identified and subsidised for devices and Internet access. Mak also called upon the government to launch an e-awareness campaign on learning and education that highlights this priority and how it can break the vicious cycle of poverty, and that the Ministry of Education should get teachers who were digital natives (i.e. ICT-savvy) to train their colleagues who are not yet digitally literate.
Ladies and Gentlemen, fine words indeed, the likes of which I have heard hundreds if not a thousand times before during my close to 26 years of writing about the ICT industry and government ICT initiatives in Malaysia.
With all due respect to persons and institutions mentioned above, I'm pretty sure that most of the well-intentioned recommendations and suggestions above will be forgotten once this COVID-19 crisis has reduced to a low enough level for physical schools to reopen, or as the Malay expression goes - it will all be hangat, hangat tahi ayam (as hot as chicken shit) and anyone who has been around chickens knows that chicken shit cools very fast after it hits the ground.
Also, those of us who use PCs, smartphones and tablet devices only know too well how these devices, the operating system and software they run by design of the ICT industry soon become "obsolete" and too slow or no longer unable to run the latest software, forcing especially the less ICT savvy amongst us, which is most users of such devices, to spend our hard-earned money to buy new devices which will serve us a few years until they too become "obsolete" and we have to replace them again. Also notice how users cannot easily replace the battery of their smartphone when it runs out, so have to either send it to an authorised repair centre or a third-party phone technician to have the battery replaced at a pretty hefty cost, so most of us tend to just chuck the phone out and buy a new one. The ICT industry keeps us running like hamsters on a treadmill.
So OK! Let's say the government and the Ministry of Education does implement all of the above recommendations and manages to close the digital divide between rural and urban areas, between the underprivileged and the privileged, between the ICT unsavvy and the ICT savvy.
However, for how long will this last before all the devices become "obsolete" and will the government be able to afford to run like a hamster on a treadmill repeatedly upgrading all the equipment or repeatedly buying new equipment to replace "obsolete" or broken down equipment, and how many parents of underprivileged children can afford to keep coming out with the money to repeatedly buy new PCs, smartphones and tablets with the latest operating system and software or when their batteries wear out and need to be replaced ???
Please think about my question above.
The Star's article referred to follows below:-
NUTP: School dropout rate will rise
Saturday, 23 May 2020
By LEE CHONGHUI
PETALING JAYA: The school dropout rate is likely to rise post-movement control order (MCO) due to an unequal learning environment caused by the disruption in formal classroom learning in light of Covid-19, says the National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP).
Its secretary-general Harry Tan (pic) said underprivileged and disabled students who did not have sufficient access to online lessons throughout the MCO were most likely to give up on education.
"Lack of facilities could cause them to be left behind in the syllabus and eventually grow disinterested when they can't cope with the workload even when they try to.
"This will make them feel inferior and reinforce the notion that since they are poor, they will always be frowned upon, " he said.
The socio-economic gap will ultimately widen in the long run when education is only accessible to the higher strata of society, he added.
To prevent this, Tan urged the government to galvanise aid from various parties across the nation to upgrade and provide Internet connectivity between students and teachers as soon as possible.
"Teachers should be retrained to master techniques of distance and online learning, " he said in response to Khazanah Research Institute's (KRI) report on how school closures since mid-March had disrupted formal learning for an estimated 4.9 million students in pre, primary and secondary schools nationwide.
KRI noted that closure of schools and gaps in teaching and learning activities during the health crisis had affected children unevenly.
The looming economic downturn following the lockdown will hit those from disadvantaged backgrounds especially harder with longer term consequences.
"Apart from strengthening broadband penetration, more needs to be done to ensure all children have access to the needed devices, including making devices more affordable and accessible.
"It is especially urgent to develop high-quality digital content, perhaps even translating appropriate foreign materials, and to equip teachers with the skills to more effectively use e-learning technologies, " the report added.
Noting that the Education Ministry was in the midst of digitalising education at the school level, former deputy education minister Datuk P. Kamalanathan said it must find a way to expand the process to encapsulate learning from home.
"The issue of devices and connectivity has to be studied thoroughly and a comprehensive long-term solution has to be developed.
"A portion of the budget should be allocated for this purpose. It's not going to be easy financially but the pandemic has demonstrated that now is the best time to enhance and expedite long-term solutions, " said Kamanlanathan, who is also MIC education bureau chairman.
Private-public partnerships was a good way to boost online learning, he said, adding that the uneven learning atmosphere would translate to a wider gap between privileged and underprivileged (urban and rural) students if changes were not done now.
Melaka Action Group for Parents in Education (Magpie) chairman Mak Chee Kin said unequal education opportunities could create a sense of urgency for the ministry to perform upgrades to Internet connectivity and raise awareness among parents to brush up on their children's digital skills.
"Those in need should be identified and subsidised for devices and Internet access. The ministry could also embark on an e-awareness campaign on learning and education that highlights this priority and how it can break the vicious cycle of poverty, " he said.
He added that teachers who were digital natives should be recognised by the ministry to encourage and train other teachers who were not yet digitally literate.
Take care and stay safe during this COVID-19 health crisis.
Yours truly
IT.Scheiss
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