Budget move will elevate online education: Idris
Published on: Sunday, October 23, 2016
Kota Kinabalu: The boosting of Ethernet broadband services in public universities in the country up to the maximum 100 Giga Byte (GB) per second next year will elevate online education in higher learning institutions.Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh said the move, mentioned in the National Budget 2017 tabled by the Prime Minister on Friday, would further facilitate open learning education via online among university students."I see that the Government has placed importance on upgrading the capacity of broadband services for universities.ADVERTISEMENT "This would benefit the university students especially those taking up digital online learning as presently the broadband services in the universities are between 2GB and 3GB. "By upgrading broadband services up to 100GB, the utilisation of open learning education tools like video conferencing when communicating with the students and usage of audio visuals could be implemented perfectly in all universities nationwide," he said.Idris said this to reporters when asked for comment on the National Budget 2017 after hosting a talk show on the second series of Soaring Upwards Programme: Let's Talk Higher Education and opening a Career Carnival, Exhibition and Sales at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), here, Saturday.Almost 2,000 university students including from the polytechnic, community colleges and secondary schools as well as lecturers and youths from various academic backgrounds attended the programme.ADVERTISEMENT Four Malaysian role models were invited, namely national high jumper Nauraj Singh Randhawa, national artistic gymnast Farah Ann Abdul Hadi, UMS alumnus Hilal Azmi who is a broadcast journalist with Astro Awani and a former UiTM graduate Wan Nazri Wan Aria who as the Chief Structural Engineer working with a German company led a team to build the iconic 601-metre Mecca Royal Hotel Clock Tower in Mecca, which is the tallest and largest in the world, three times larger than London's Big Ben.They were invited to be exemplary youths who succeeded in sports and their respective career as a result of acquiring tertiary education while the national athletes Nauraj and Farah are still studying in Universiti Malaya and Monash University in Kuala Lumpur.
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Idris said increasing broadband services to 100GB per second would also enhance the knowledge level of university students as they could get the information faster.On a related development, he also lauded the announcement of a RM400 million allocation for research works in universities that would give them new impetus.Idris said the new funding would boost more research products that would be beneficial to the community in the country."Actually research works in universities are like bread and butter for the university researchers and RM400 million would boost their research and development works in universities, which have been getting international recognition."In fact, some of the research products have been used in our country such as the polio medicine produced in a research of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and a poultry vaccine to prevent avian flu and respiratory diseases from Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM)."On nine Teaching Education Institutes (IPGs) in the country to be converted into polytechnics and training institutes for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) trainers, Idris said the conversion would enhance the quality of TVET education in the country."We are looking at this move positively, that it will further improve the academic performance of TVET that is part of the National Higher Education Blueprint where TVET's quality of education was also given emphasis following its progress of only between seven and eight per cent a year."As for the TVET's academic performance it is between two and three per cent now in the country. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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Hence, the move in the budget for next year will further boost the quality of TVET education," Idris said.On the talk show of 'Soaring Upwards', he said the main purpose of the programme was to become a channel to spread information on the success of higher education in the country.