Sunday January 30, 2011
IT is pertinent for school heads to completely embrace information and communication technology (ICT) in the current information era, said Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
“The time has come to re-conceptualise the role of the principal in managing schools as learning organisations,” said Muhyiddin who is also Education Minister.
At school level, the school head or principal must be involved in ICT by encouraging continuous innovation and improvement, he said at the 5th roundtable meeting of Asean Educational Leaders and the 3rd Conference of South East Asian School Principals Forum in Brunei recently.
The events were held in conjunction with the 46th Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation (SEAMEO) Council Conference (SEAMEC) and 6th Asean Education Ministers Meeting (ASED).
Schools and their principals should not depend on archaic methods, but should move towards keeping up with technology and making decisions and improvements that are current and relevant, he said
For a start, he said school principals being the “implementers and translators of policies”, should be ready to face and resolve problems experienced at all levels .
At the same time, Muhyiddin stressed that they should not expect to implement change if no attempts were made to understand the context of change.
Sharing the Malaysian experience, he said the ministry had launched several initiatives to improve the education standard.
“We have developed clusters of excellent schools under the High Performing School Programme where school leaders are encouraged to share best practices in order to enhance student learning. This programme has brought about positive results,” he said.
He said 20 schools obtained high performing status last year and many more would meet the benchmark this year, including those from remote areas.
“We have also embarked on the School Improvement Programme to accelerate school transformation on a wider scale,” he said adding that since its implementation last year, 40% of schools had demonstrated marked improvements in student performance. — Bernama
“The time has come to re-conceptualise the role of the principal in managing schools as learning organisations,” said Muhyiddin who is also Education Minister.
At school level, the school head or principal must be involved in ICT by encouraging continuous innovation and improvement, he said at the 5th roundtable meeting of Asean Educational Leaders and the 3rd Conference of South East Asian School Principals Forum in Brunei recently.
The events were held in conjunction with the 46th Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation (SEAMEO) Council Conference (SEAMEC) and 6th Asean Education Ministers Meeting (ASED).
Schools and their principals should not depend on archaic methods, but should move towards keeping up with technology and making decisions and improvements that are current and relevant, he said
For a start, he said school principals being the “implementers and translators of policies”, should be ready to face and resolve problems experienced at all levels .
At the same time, Muhyiddin stressed that they should not expect to implement change if no attempts were made to understand the context of change.
Sharing the Malaysian experience, he said the ministry had launched several initiatives to improve the education standard.
“We have developed clusters of excellent schools under the High Performing School Programme where school leaders are encouraged to share best practices in order to enhance student learning. This programme has brought about positive results,” he said.
He said 20 schools obtained high performing status last year and many more would meet the benchmark this year, including those from remote areas.
“We have also embarked on the School Improvement Programme to accelerate school transformation on a wider scale,” he said adding that since its implementation last year, 40% of schools had demonstrated marked improvements in student performance. — Bernama
