Smart school primary objectives

The primary objective of Smart School management will be to manage efficiently and effectively the resources and processes required to support the teaching-learning functions.

Management will help to reallocate skilled human resources to more valuable activities, save costs over the long term, improve the quality of decisions through better access to information, and accelerate decision making.

objectives Develop a loyal and united Malaysian

nation Produce citizens who believe in God,

possess high moral standards, knowledge, competence, and who are capable of

achieving high personal well-being Develop human resources for national

development Provide access to education to all citizens

of Malaysia

Implementing the project In the Pilot, the Smart School Integrated

Solution (SSIS) was rolled out to 87 schools in the country. The Smart School project is implemented by the Ministry of Education (MoE), Malaysia.

The MoE’s industry partner is Telekom Smart School (TSS), that was awarded the contract to develop the project in collaboration with the MoE and the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDC).

Project Budjet The Smart Schools Integrated

Solutions (hereafter SSIS) was rolled out 1998 at the cost of US$78 million (RM 300 millions) to be spent on a pilot project up to December 2002. Of this RM183,573,737 was for Capital Expenditure and RM116,426,263 for Operating Expenditure

Benefits

• Children educated with critical and creative thinking skills

Inculcated with values, and encouraged to Improve language proficiency

• Holistic learning promoted• Children allowed to progress at their

own pace• Students’ varying capabilities, interests,and needs will be recognized

The Smart School assessment system will involve a significant departure from traditional assessment systems:

Help realize the National Philosophy of Education

• Assure quality Flexible and learner-friendly

• Provide more accurate picture of a student’s achievement, readiness, progress, aptitude, learning styles, and abilities

Social Benifits • Efficiency - Re-allocation of skilled human

resources to more valuable activities - Cost savings over the long term • Effectiveness - Improves quality of decisions

through better access to information - Improves speed of decision making

Learning Benifits Better school/community relationship.• Critical progress feedback provided to

parents on timely basis.• Tailored according to the students’

needs Timely, relevant information.• Students will use their local

environment for learning.• More effective teaching and learning.

Time saving Student data available on-line to those

who need it, when they need it on restricted access.

• Ease of registration for students, parents and

administrators.• Ability to effectively and efficiently

manageattendance and respond to problem

situations.• Improves cash handling.

Cost and recourses approaches Reduces cost of managing resource

information.• Allows delivery of “just-in-time”

educational materials tailored to individual teacher and student needs.

• Improves management of resources by linking them to the curriculum.

• Makes it easier for schools to haveresources on-hand.

More efficient and interesting Helps teachers, principals, and

support staff utilize more efficiently and

effectively external resources.• Introduces the concept of virtual

visits designed to make learning and training more interesting.

Control and Monitoring Reduces time needed for budgeting

• Efficient dealings with suppliers.

• More efficient and effective accounting.

• Improved financial control.

• More efficient monitoring

Cost Reduction Improved asset management

deliversmajor cost reductions.• Increased revenue from

effective use of school facilities.• Facilities in working order at all

times

HR management benefits More efficient and effective deployment

of teaching and administrative staff.• Teachers will be more aware of their

situation and what is expected of them Management will be aware of what

(human) resources they have at hand.• Improved HR management in all

functional areas.• Happier staff, hence happier students!

Security benefits Improved physical asset

security management.• Improved security and greater

safety for students• Ensures confidentiality of

specified data

Efficiency More efficient policy

development and management.• Efficient and effective field

support capability.• All aspects of the IT function

are managed in an efficient, cost effective way

Communication &Budgeting Using computer communication to

link the school’s

databases to facilitate budgeting, accounting and reporting

The Financial Management component handles the day-to-day and long-term financial matters:

Comprehensive accounting system with ability to automatically generate customized reports

• Direct interface to accounting systems at the district, state and central levels.

• Efficient and flexible reporting subsystem.• Efficient cash management system.• Comprehensive audit and control

capability to keep track of cash flow.• Facilitates annual budgeting and long-

term planning

The act of parents in financial support

Parents who are kept informed and made to feel they are part of the school community will readily contribute cash, materials or services to help initiate projects that will enhance their children’s learning experience. If this were to happen on a large scale, the government’s financial responsibilities will be eased so that resources could bedirected to schools in poorer localities.

Will the project worth Notably, an assessment has been commissioned,

but its independence of government and TSS and its educational credentials need to be studied before its final report can be validated. Unless an independent review, with input from educational specialists, is conducted, the lack of systematic and hard-headed feedback will continue to hamper the success of the SSP strategy because teachers, parents, students and the general community will remain skeptical about the benefits of allocating so much money to an ICT learning strategy that has not been proven to deliver more smartness.

Will the project worth Placed into the context of the international

debate about how and whether ICT can deliver ‘smarter’ students and teachers, there is also the issue of whether the same investment in alternative teaching approaches could have delivered better and more relevant results for Malaysia. The role of philosophy, for example, in the study by Lewis, suggests that ICT by itself does not automatically produce imaginative, curious, questioning and productive learners.

Conclusion Finally, it hardly needs to be stressed

that the competence and learning capacities of school children will affect their performance in universities, regardless of whether they are studying engineering or philosophy. This gives the Smart Schools Project in Malaysia particular interest to educational policy makers globally.