Budget 2023: Strengthen digitalisation of education system
04 Oct 2022 10:05am
Alimuddin said the Education Ministry should be given a bigger allocation in the 2023 Budget in line with the government's aspiration to transform the country’s education. - Bernama Photo
As such, national education laureate Tan Sri Alimuddin Mohd Dom said the Education Ministry should be given a bigger allocation in the 2023 Budget in line with the government's aspiration to transform the country’s education.
He said it would involve cost to realise it and the teaching equipment, especially relating to Information and Communication Technology (ICT), like computer labs, robotics and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), was not cheap.
"Although we already have computer labs in schools, but for computers, we cannot use outdated ones, the same goes for technology, we need new tools and technology to facilitate PdP, like the electronic board.
"All these, like it or not, we need up-to-date facilities, including the latest applications for students and teachers, while also ensuring that the applications can be used by all students whether they are in the urban or rural areas,” he said when contacted by Bernama recently.
Alimuddin said the provision of the latest PdP facilities would not only be for normal day schools, but also those that provide Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET).
"If the government wants to see (for example) digital technology applied in the field of agriculture, investment to provide the latest facilities and technology has to be done starting at the school level," he said.
Sharing Alimuddin’s views is National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) president Aminuddin Awang , who said that additional allocation would be required to upgrade ICT facilities in launching the digital transformation process of the national education system.
"The additional allocation for upgrading of the ICT will be for 10,250 schools across the country as the existing facilities are already outdated.
"I hope that priority can be given to improving the school's ICT system, especially Internet access, because it is very necessary for PdP. Without the Internet, all efforts for a transformation will be futile,” he said.
He said with a bigger allocation, the issue of teachers forking out their own money to get good ICT facilities for their school could be resolved.
"There are teachers who use their own money to buy laptops and so on for teaching and learning purposes. I have urged several times to give a RM1,000 rebate to teachers to buy devices...I understand that this has been approved but could not be implemented (yet) due to financial constraints," he said.
Meanwhile, Aminuddin also voiced his concern about the safety of students in schools that were not well-maintained.
"Schools in need of repair, like the roof is near collapse, or rusty iron stairs in the school compound, this poses a safety threat to students. It needs repair, but repair work could not be done because there is no allocation,” he added.
In the 2022 Budget, the Education Ministry continued to receive the largest allocation amounting to RM52.6 billion or 16 percent of the total estimated federal expenditure. - BERNAMA
