It is now commonplace for Ministers to talk about the Information Age and the revolution in Information Technology. However, if Malaysia is to take the quantum leap into the Information Age, the country must move beyond just hype about IT and get into the nitty-gritty of developing computer literacy and competence among the Malaysian people.
In this regard, the Education Ministry must play a pivotal role to ensure that the new generation of Malaysians who are now in the universities, secondary and primary schools will all become computer-literate and efficient to take Malaysia into the Information Age.
However, even in our universities, there is more hype than reality about producing graduates who are computer-literate.
In University Kebangsaan Malaysia, for instance, students are not entitled to automatic individual email accounts despite all the hype about Rancangan Induk Teknologi Maklumat UKM (1994-2002) dengan misi menyediakan tecknologi maklumat terkini untuk warga universiti.
Under the present UKM policy, students in Year One to Three are given email accounts according to the requirements of their course, with the responsibility placed on the lecturers - but this email account would have to be shared by a few students. Students in Year Four are also subject to requirements of their course although they will be given individual email accounts if supported by their course lecturer.
These email accounts are withdrawn when they are no more supported by course requirements.
In fact, there are IT lecturers in the Faculty of Information Science and Technology) (Fakulti Sains dan Technologi Maklumat) in UKM who do not have email access, let alone Internet access, purportedly because of line configuration problems.
How can UKM be serious about IT when it has IT lecturers who do not have even email access - whatever the reason?
This is most unsatisfactory and retrogressive as compared to universities in other countries which are serious about IT. A Malaysian student in Emory University in Atlanta, for instance, has told me that all students are entitled to two e-mail accounts - one is regular internet account and another is the Learnlink (an intranet network) which can still send email to internet. University professors and lecturers will post their handouts, grades, announcements, etc. on the Learnlink. As a result, an email account is as useful and important as a telephone.
The problem in UKM however is not just about giving out email accounts to students, but there are too few computers for those who have email accounts to make use of the email facility.
Furthermore, there is the problem of access to Internet, for not all computers in UKM are hooked to the Net. Students in some faculties in UKM, like Fakulti Kejuruteraan, Fakulti Sains dan Teknologi Maklumat, Fakulti Sains Fizis Gunaan and Faculty Sains Matematik are more fortunate as the Pcs in these faculties are connected to the Internet. Students in the Arts stream however are denied this exposure.
In the UKM Perpustakaan Tun Sri Lanang, there are only two PCs which are connected to the Internet, and students have to queue up for as long as one hour to use the UKM library computer to access the Internet. Sometimes, the UKM library computers would be down and not usable.
If Malaysia is to make the quantum leap into the Information Age, we must first make the quantum leap in making Malaysians, particularly the present generation of students in the universities and schools, become computer literate and competent.
Let all universities in Malaysia have an IT crash-programme to expand computer facilities in all local universities, so that by the end of next year, all local universities will give automatic email accounts to every undergraduate. All university students should also be able to access the Internet, whether in the university libraries, faculties or residential hostels, which would mean a massive increase of computers in the universities.
There must also be a quantum leap in promoting computer education in the schools. The Education Ministry should serious consider setting a firm target that by the year 2000, all the 8,500 schools would be connected to the Internet.
At present, the percentage of the 250,000 teachers in the primary and secondary schools in Malaysia who have got onto the Internet is very low. In fact, it is not uncommon to find pupils who have greater computer literacy than their teachers.
Information Technology will redefine the teacher-student relationship, changing the role of teachers. However, teachers cannot guide students in this new relationship unless they first become familiar and proficient in IT.
For this reason, the Education Ministry should launch a three-point IT plan to ensure that the 250,000 teachers in the country are computer-literate and get on the Internet by the year 2000 so that they could guide the new generation of schoolchildren into the Information Age, which comprises the following elements:
I know the bottom-line for all these proposals is money, and this is why I would call on the Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, to ensure that the 1997 budget which he would be tabling in Parliament on Friday would be an IT budget, which would encompass the IT objectives which I have outlined to prepare Malaysia to take the quantum leap into the Information Age by developing a high degree of computer literacy and competence among Malaysians.
(23/10/96)