In response to the human capacity requirements of the K-economy, the Government has indicated in the Eighth Malaysia Plan and soon to be unveiled K-economy Master Plan the need to reengineer the educational system and realign it with the vision of the country.

As trainers of young minds, and incubators and transmitters of knowledge, schools play a pivotal role in preparing young citizens who will be the workforce and leaders of tomorrow.  As such, it is envisaged that by 2002 at least 2400 of the 7000 or so schools in Malaysia will be equipped with ICT infrastructure, connectivity, curriculum, and teacher training.  By 2005, the Ministry of Education (Ministry) expects to equip well over 6000 schools in the country. With a view to supporting the Ministry’s ICT initiatives, this pilot project endeavours to search for new ways to address the sustainability issue and perhaps to inform future policies or the design of similar projects.

Many non-urban communities in Malaysia still lag behind cities in terms of access, use, and benefits of ICT.   By extending the school facility to communities which otherwise would not have ICT access, this approach actually extends the “digital bridge” to reach those on the fringe.  This pilot project revives the community extension concept but takes it several steps further to ensure that the benefits are accrued to both schools and communities.  

In particular, this pilot project proposes to:

• equip at least six selected schools with essential hardware, software, and information;
• develop a design and implementation approach that addresses the sustainability issue;
• develop a strategy for extending the school ICT facility to the community with a view to bridging the digital divide more effectively; and,
• build capacity of selected school staff, teachers, students, parents and community members to not only use ICT in a manner that improves their lives but also to train their peers and to transfer the knowledge as widely as possible.

The project envisages the facility set up at selected schools will serve as a school/community “ICT hub” providing access to ICT and training to other schools as well as communities in the vicinity. With an estimated student population of 1,000 in each school and over 7,000 in each community, it is expected the ICT hub and the web-based contents generated by this project will have a wide-reaching impact.   Similarly, it is expected the training of core groups of both students and teachers as peer trainers will have a multiplier effect, reaching hundreds of teachers and over a few thousand students during and beyond the life of the project.

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