PACE 8

"EDU~~ION

Cultivatingacademicexcellence

ROZANASANInews@nst.com.my

AMIDST a challenging eco-nomic environment, the fo-cus on education remained

steadfast in 2016.. While the government recalibrat-edand restructured the 2016 Budgetearlier this year, the education sec-tor was seen as a key focus arearecognised for its contribution to tal-ent and socioeconomic develop-ment as well as being a key factor insafeguarding the future of the coun-try. With that view, creating oppor-tunities and raising the quality. ofeducation were top priorities.In January, the government an-

nounced that four Public ServiceDepartment sponsorship pro-

+grammes would continue to provideopportunities for those pursuinghigher education.Other measures announced were

a RM5 billion allocation for the Na-tional Higher Education Fund(PTPTN) for undergraduates, thecontinuation of MyBrain 15- ascholarship programme aimed at in-creasing the number of profession-als with a postgraduate certificationin Malaysia - the Academic Train-ing Scheme for Bumiputera (SLAB)and Academic Training Scheme ofPublic Higher Education Institu-tions (SLAl) programmes. A total of15,000 students were to be added inthe MyMaster programme, 5,OOOforMyPhD, and 300 for SLAl.In terms of reputation and rank-

ing, several' universities made the

country proud. In June, fiveMalaysian public universities wereranked in the top 100 in the QSAsia2016University Rankings: Universiti

. Malaya (UM) in 27th place, Univer-siti Putra Malaysia (UPM) in 49thplace, Universiti Sains Malaysia (51),Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (SS)and Unlversiti Teknologi Malaysia(63).Recently, three Malaysian univer-

sities made it to the top 100 list of300 universities in SO countries inthe Times Higher Education (THE)BRICS and EmergingEconomies UniversityRankings 2017. UPMwas in 89th place, aclimb of14 places fromits previous ranking,while UTP was 91st andUTM ranked lOOth.Making It to the top300 wereUSM at 114and UKM at 136,whileUUMmade it to within L ..

the 201-250 range andUniveisiti Teknologi Mara made it tothe 251-300 band.In terms of intematlonalisation,

2016 saw the United Nations Edu-cational, Scientific and Cultural Or-ganlsatiori Itlnesco) citing Malaysiaas among a favourite education des-tination for international students,being home to 10 international uni-versity branch campuses - thehighest in Asia.More Malaysians are being en-

couraged to partake in life-longlearning through a more flexiblemeans of education. This comes af-

graduates with theiryear. Pic by Ramdzan Masiam

j..;4

at Universiti Sains Malaysia's 54th convocation this

ter the launch of two guidelines de-veloped by the Malaysian Qualifi-cations Agency (MQA)- the Guide- .line for the Accreditation of PriorExperiential Learning Credit Award,or APEL (C) and the Credit Transfer.for Massive Open Online CoursesGuideline - which allow individ-

uals with working 'ex-perience and variousshort courses to be en-titled for credit trans-fers in academic pro-grammes, offered at .higher education insti-tutions.At the school level,

2016 saw the comple-tion of the review forboth Kurikulum Stan-dard Sekolah Rendah

. (KSSR) and Kurikulum Standard.Sekolah Menengah (KSSM), asplanned in the Malaysia EducationBlueprint (2013-2025).Education director-general Tan

Sri 'Dr Khair Mohamad Yusof toldthe New Stmit~ Times studentscould expect changes of between 15and 20 per cent in subjects' syllabi,

•which had been tweaked. The ped-agogy of instruction and assessmentwould no longer focus only on cen- 'tral examinations, like SPM andUjian Pencapaian sekolah Rendah(UPSR), but also on school assess-

ment, co-curriculum, physicalhealth, sports and talent.To address English language pro-

ficiency, a Roadmap for EnglishLanguage Education in Malaysiaspanning from 2015 to 2025 was ap-proved, marking the beginning of ajourney to align the standard of En-glish taught in Malaysian schoolsand institutions of higher learningwith international standards.In a bid to further democratise

education and level the playing fieldfor schools, the ,Educatiop Ministryhas set its sights on enhancingbroadband connectivity for some2,OOO-schoolsin rural areas and the. interior to 4G, under the secondphase of the lBestariNet initiative.At .present; Education, Minister

Datuk 'Seri Mahdzir Khalid saidschools were using the Asymmetric.,Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL)andVery Small Aperture Terminal(VSAT),which have slow connectiv-ity."I have already given the company

responsible and the EducationalTechnology Division until early nextyear, at the very least, to achievefaster Internet speed," he had said.Concerns about the increase of

bullying cases has led to the Ed-ucation Ministry announcing a planto enforce a one-year suspension on'all primary and secondary school

students involved in bullying.It is expected to be enforced next

year.Amidst the uproar of this year's

unexpected UPSR results in Novem-ber, the Education Ministry ismulling a proposal to replace UPSRwith the School-Based Assessment(PBS)next year. Under the plan, ex-aminations will comprise 50 percent of overall scores for students,with the balance coming from stu-dents' emotional, spiritual and ..physical aspects based on their par-ticipation in school.The school year ended on an up-

beat note with the announcement of, an improved performance in Math- ..ematics and Science by students,asmeasured by the Trends Interna-

..tional Mathematics and Science(TIMSS) study 2015. TIMSS is an in-ternational bench-marking studyconducted by the International As-sociation for the' Evaluation of Ed-ucational Achievement(IEA) ..Khair said Malaysia was among 16

countries that recorded the highestscore in Science, at 471 points inTIMSS2015, an increase of 45 pointsfrom the score of 426 in TIMSS2011.For Mathematics, Maiaysia wasamong 18 countries that recordedimprovements when it scored 465points, an increase of25 points fromthe figure in TIMSS2011.

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RM5b

nroaaoana connectivttyfor rural schools is being upgraded to 40 under the second phase of Central may be given less emphasisthe lBestariNet initiative. Pic by Luqman Hakim Zubir review. Pic by Farizpl Hafiz Awang

Allocation forthe National Higher

Education Fund(PTPTN) in 2016