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The
challenges and issues in inception of smart schools in Malaysia
In implementation of smart school,
managing resources wisely is the main emphasis that should be given by the school administration.
This is to make sure that schools and infrastructure can well-organized. Smart
school is one of Ministry of Education plans which the goal is to realize the
change in lesson content and method in delivery
the content to the students at the school. Thus, all the principals have responsibilities to change and renew the
administration and management of school system in order to ensure smart school
approach is successful. However, we can not denied that there must be some
challenges in smart school implementation.
There are some of challenges faced
since the inception of smart schools in Malaysia. The challenges can divide to
several categories which is principals,
teachers, students and the school. As a principal of a smart school, it must
not be an easy duty as it was a big challenge to conduct and organize his or
her school well. Excellent and success
of a school is heavily depend on the effectiveness of principal.
As the smart school is related to computing system, so the principal has
to emphasis and gives more commitment on provide technology infrastructure such
as laboratory, smart whiteboard and media mass material. It is quite
challenging because the principal has to plan the strategy wisely to ensure the
procedure progress smoothly and in order.
The second challenge for smart school
principal is when there is problem to provide high quality and relevan of
teaching and learning materials for the
students. Although there are available packages but it only suitable for form1
students. The difficulty to obtain software for form 4 students give trouble to the principal because the
materials that provided by government is not enough. In order to solve this
problem, the school administration have to find the software by searching from
the other resources. The problem in obtain an original software also exist. The
principal also responsible to convince student’s parent so that they believe
and give support to the school and their children.
In line with the smart school mission n
vision which is to produce students of IT savvy the principal must complete
himself or herself with technology knowledges and skills. Smart school principals must have a
good appearance in the both physical and mental, honesty, selflessness, self-confidence
and ability to communicate with others. Principals can use collaborative
management for the success of the smart school project. They are not only need to provide
support in terms of money but also be a model and made transformation in administration.
In efforts to cultivate ICT culture in a smart school, a written policy
document should be drawn up. This
policy will helps to design and manage
the ICT program which enable teachers and students become master in ICT systematically and progressive.
Beside the principal, teachers also
have to face challenges in the implementation of smart school. The teachers have to face the challenges with
an open mind to make sure the smart school can progress well and perfect. Teachers also must complete himself or herself with
ICT knowledges and skills. This is because teachers have a big responsible to
teach and deliver knowledges to the
students. The teachers must be able to think creatively and critically. The teachers
need to use computer intensively in their study, presentations, teaching
process and communication to diversify the use and application of ICT.
As
the teachers are using technology equipment and the insfrastructure intensively
in teaching process, there must be a
problem when the computers or equipment are damage or unable to use. This
problem may cause teaching process distrupted. Thus, this problem must be
solved quickly to ensure teaching and learning process progress smoothly. The
best solution is always keep in maintenance. However, the cost of maintenance is
very high and this may cause the
repairment and maintenance process delayed or take long time. The teachers have
an important role which is educate their students to master in using ICT. But the
efforts in attract students and fostering their interest to ICT is one of the smart school teachers
challenges.
Another challenges for smart school
teachers is they are not ready to change
their mindset. They are also not ready
to achieve the objectives of smart school concept and learn new ICT
programmes. Besides, they are lack of exposure in how to use the technology.
Thus, the government have to overcome this problem by train the teachers to make sure that teaching and learning process progress smoothly and effectively. The
teachers themselves have to adapt with the new concept of teaching and
learning.
There is no exception for smart school students to face the challenges
in implementation of their smart school. For the some of smart school students,
they are not well informed about the unique features of smart school. They also
unfamiliar with technology and tools. This because they come from non-academic
family background. They preferred to learn in traditional method. So, to
overcome those students problems, the number of students in smart school has
should be limited. Only among the excellent students can attend to smart school
because the learning style need a students who can explore by themselves to
gain knowledge.
Actually, the
smart school students should be ready to accept and adapt with the new
transformation of teaching and learning process. They should be prepared
mentally and physically so that they can accept the changes and make as
initiative to improve their skills. It
is good if the exposure given by the teachers can help and increase the students interest in learning process. In Smart
School, most of students assessments are using a computer supported by an
internet. They have to learn how to gather information from the
internet. Unfortunately some student do not have an access to internet at home.
The smart
school students should ensure all taught that given by the teachers is a useful
knowledge. They need to give efforts to master at all. For the sake of realize
that, the smart school students should ready and understand what teachers have
taught. They must always practice and do revision continuously in order to
become expert in ICT.
The smart
school itself have to face the challenges in implementation of smart school.
The smart shool also lack of facilities. The computer labs not in adequate number.
There are also hardware problems related to LANs, PCs and servers. Furthermore,
the breakdown of electricity supply also one of the challenges. This is due to
inability of the existing system in school to cope with the increase usage of
electricity. Thus, the authorities
should play their roles in improving the management of smart school. Moreover,
the smart school software was not compatible with the national textbook. Thus,
the school has to uprade the software in line with national text book. Each
school need to have a system integration engineer who has a broad range of
skills including software and hardware engineering and interface protocols.
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