The assistant director for IT training at Singapore's Education Ministry, David Lau Yan Boon, announced that the government had allocated S$2bil (RM4.6bil), from now to 2001, to put computers in all its schools.

According to Lau, the allocation allows each school to buy computers, supporting peripherals and software. However, schools may still need to raise additional funds for other needs, like getting wired.

Once the infrastructure is in place, all 360 schools spread across the island will be able to link up to Singapore ONE, the backbone that is supposed to bring PCs into every Singaporean household.

The schools can now network with each other and their students can collaborate on projects.

Lau says that the collaboration can be through intra-school, inter-school, and international projects. The Web will play an essential role in collaborative efforts.

"We believe that the way of the Web will be the way of the future and the way of life,'' says Lau.

Singaporean students are fortunate as each school has a dedicated person in charge of IT development. This person sees to the needs of the students in terms of harnessing IT, as well as making sure the necessary infrastructure is in place to support it.

Thinking school, learning nation

While busy putting the framework in place, the Ministry also looked at its syllabus. "A revamp of the syllabus to create a knowledge-based economy is in the works,'' informs Lau.

Though work on that began three years ago, the final edition has yet to be completed. "We split that process into two stages. It concerns how IT is used as a tool for education,'' he says.

Lau named three key components that will reflect the new syllabus: entrepreneurship, thinking skills and creative skills. IT will eventually make up 30% of curriculum time.

In building an innovative and thinking society, the government does expect cracks in the system. That, Lau reckons, is to be expected if students are given so much freedom.

Teachers interviewed said that lower secondary school students get the basics in wordprocessing, spreadsheet and graphics applications.

This would form a foundation, they proclaim, to prepare students for "enrichment classes'' in upper secondary school that would involve web publishing, programming and other projects such as DIY (do-it-yourself) PC assembly.

As each process is constantly reviewed, schools are expected to go with the flow when required. The National Computer Board, in a survey done earlier this year, found that networking and multimedia skills are lacking.

According to Ngee Ann Polytechnic lecturer Lee Chin Seng, "The survey found that equipping students with technical networking skills is important.''

In response to that, the polytechnic decided to join 3Com's NetPrep programme in May to learn about networking, in order to teach and train others.

Though the tertiary institution has been offering a Diploma in Data Communications since 1990, it is eager to add more value to its syllabus.

Today the polytechnic has trained two neighbourhood schools and four premier schools under 3Com's NetPrep programme.

Among the schools are Chinese High School, Nanyang Girls School, Catholic High School, New Town School and Bedok Town School.

Diminished fears

The first all-girl school to embrace the NetPrep programme on the island was Nanyang Girls' School. According to its head of IT, Chi Pin Lay, the increasingly networked world prompted its push into the programme.

"We've seen it coming for the last five years. E-mail and ICQ are realities we educators have to come to terms with. It becomes our responsibility to make sure our students not only have front-end knowledge but also understand the fundamentals at the back-end,'' says Chi.

She says that the school settled on NetPrep as it is self-paced and independent learning that is developed by professionals from the education sector.

Even with the comprehensive package available with NetPrep, Chi says that the school faces challenges such as changing teachers' and students' mindset on using the Net as a learning tool.

"Besides facing time constraints, we also have to level out the different entry levels of the students,'' she adds.

With the best interest of students in mind, Chi is confident obstacles will be overcome.

New Town school teacher James Tan has taken the NetPrep programme a step further.

"We had 80 students interested in the programme but could not accommodate all of them, so we did an aptitude test and chose 45,'' he says.

With his Networkers@NTSS, Tan plans to impart lessons via the Web to his students. In addition to hardware and software, Tan includes a new element called "heartware,'' which he defines as changing mindsets.

He says that teachers will be facilitators with the Netprep programme. "They need to ask more and talk less in the process of creating a community of learners. Students, on the other hand, will be independent learners and team workers.''

While he acknowledged that it is not an easy task, Tan believes it is better to understand the scenario and be prepared for whatever problems that could arise.

Tan also outlined possible problems such as synergising the diverse abilities of each student, bringing shy students out of their shells and creating orators out of others.

Not so different

The efforts undertaken by our neighbouring country to introduce technology to classrooms is impressive, to say the least. Malaysian schools suffer a myriad of problems just getting wired. Some, even to this day, do not have electricity.

But with all that glorious equipment and visionary plans, the development of IT in Singapore schools parallels ours. Providing everything produces nothing, if the mind isn't prepared for it.

As long as the learning culture is dominated by excellence in exam results, then the creativity needed when dealing with technology will continue to elude us. Malaysians face the same dilemma as our neighbours in this aspect.

The final presentation during the above session was conducted by Tiong Ting Ming, the principal from SMJK Dindings in Lumut. What he has single-handedly done to deploy IT at his school has amazed many.

The last of the six speakers at the event had the audience sitting up and leaning forward in their chairs. They were surprised that a school nestled in the backwaters of Perak had wired classrooms.

They could not believe that 16- and 17-year-olds there could install and commission a fibre optic network. The very same kids are web publishers, proficient in C and Linux programming.

With due respect to all the variables in implementing technology in any environment, I think we all realise, as did most of the teachers present that afternoon, that sometimes it takes only one person to make a difference.

At SMJK Dindings, 48-year-old Tiong is responsible for that difference. His dedication, determination and doggedness in pursuing his dream to create a race of analytical and deliberate thinkers have pushed the school to excel.

The plus side for Tiong is that he learnt to be IT savvy and his education has not stopped. Till this day, the father of three young children clocks in 12 to 14 hours a day at school. He is constantly learning, teaching and guiding.

Tiong once told this journalist: a mediocre teacher will just tell; a good teacher will explain; a better teacher demonstrates; a great teacher inspires; an old teacher aspires.

© In.Tech, Star Publications (M) Berhad.
All Rights Reserved
e-mail intech@thestar.com.my