MIRI, April 30 — The Ministry of Education (MoE) has admitted that students in the rural areas, including in Sarawak, are at a disadvantage as they have limited access and opportunities to develop digital skills than their urban peers.

Minister Fadhlina Sidek, in acknowledging this scenario, said it had put rural students into a vulnerable position in today’s technology-driven world.

“The Digital Competency Score (DCS) 2023 report shows that the average score for rural school students was 3.24/5.00, compared to the national average score of 3.31.

“The average for the urban school students exhibited a higher score, 3.34/5.00,” she disclosed this in Parliament yesterday in a reply to Miri MP Chiew Choon Man, who asked the ministry to state the challenges related to the gap between rural and urban schools amidst this era of digitalisation and the use of new technologies.

“The challenges faced by rural schools include lower digital literacy skills.

“However, the ministry is always trying to do its best towards ensuring that the digital gap between rural and urban schools would be minimised by equipping all schools with high-speed Internet access, digital devices and other IT facilities, in stages,” said Fadhlina further.

She said MoE had provided Internet broadband access, with speeds of 30Mbps to 300Mbps, to 10,237 schools.

A total of 4,957 schools are being provided with fibre optic lines, 4,681 schools with 4G wireless broadband lines, and 599 schools having satellite lines.

Currently, Internet facilities at school include computer labs, and are also provided in the teachers’ rooms and administrative offices.

“In addition, my ministry is also completing the ICT hardware in the schools’ computer lab in phases, involving the supply of laptops at 21 units, one unit of multifunction printers, one unit of projectors, and one unit of charging carts (one unit).

“Phase 1 was completed in 2022 involving 3,851 schools, while Phase 2 was completed in 2023 for 3,455 schools,” she added.

“Phase 3 of this project involved 3,885 schools.”

It is informed that to further facilitate the PdP process through the DELIMa learning platform, MoE had obtained a G Suite Enterprise For Education (GSEfE) with three-year software licensing, that would remain valid until this July 8.

This involved the supply of 109,522 paid licence units and 4.5 million licence units for schools under the MoE, free of charge for the use of teachers and students.

MoE had also provided 50,000 laptops to teachers to support their task of educating children using digital technology.

“These laptops were supplied to the teachers in January 2024, with distribution based on the number of teachers in the school,” said Fadhlina.

“To increase the adoption of digital technology in the learning process, pilot hybrid classes have been implemented for 110 selected educational institutions involving 550 classes,” she added. — The Borneo Post

https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2024/04/30/education-ministry-admits-gap-in-digital-skills-between-rural-urban-schools/131622