The Awakening of Digital Poverty and Divide.
Written by Jane Law, edited by Rifqi Faisal and researched by Team MYER.
Since the implementation of the Movement Control Order (MCO), the education in Malaysia has been shaky. With schools ordered to be shut down by the Prime Minister in an effort to flatten the curve, it is understandable that both students and teachers are scrambling to piece the jigsaw puzzles together. It doesn’t help either that teachers are forced to pivot their teaching to a completely new and never efficiently practiced before medium in order to accommodate their students’ learning progression.
So, how is the current education situation in Malaysia going? Is online learning effective for both the teachers and students? Can online learning be the new way to go for our rigid-structured educational system? While we may not be able to give you a full, 360 view, the MYER team has conducted a survey among a few teachers and students for the past few days to hear their thoughts on the matter. Here’s a glimpse behind the curtain:
The Good Bits.
“With online learning, my time to study is much more flexible. I feel that using applications like Zoom and Google Classroom is the same as any ordinary, physical class because my teachers are still providing lessons and I can still ask them privately through WhatsApp when I don’t understand in class.” — a 15-year-old student
Let’s clear the air.
Online learning definitely has its upsides. Instead of being confined by four walls and having to sit through lessons in a motionless manner, online learning has given students the freedom to learn in the comforts of their own home. As long as they have a technological device and the Internet, study materials uploaded by the teachers can be accessed with just a single tap on the screen. Moreover, students are now able to learn at any time of the day they deemed convenient and are not bound to the regular, rigid 7 to 1 (or sometimes even until 4) schedule of learning.
According to the World Economic Forum, online education has been making up the loss of traditional classroom features with its flexibility. Students can retrieve “classroom” recordings whenever they like, allowing them to revisit the syllabus taught at their own ease. In regards to that, the access to these recordings, study materials, and even class discussions are continuous. In other words, ‘classrooms’ now are attainable 24 hours a day, seven days a week, all thanks to virtuality! This is extremely useful for those who might need to review previous teachings or take some time to reflect on certain materials before moving on to the next class.
Online learning is also more inclusive in certain regards. It allows physically-challenged students and teachers more freedom to participate in class as they could attend lessons via their computers rather than having to be there physically.
In addition, online learning has also been proven to be more personalized for students. Straying away from the ‘one-size-fits-all’ concept, online learning enables students to control their own learning experience as they can learn at their own pace to tailor and meet their own specific needs. This way, students will be able to learn the syllabus more effectively.
The Bad Bits.
Though the good aspects of one shouldn’t be overshadowed by its bad aspects, it needs to be taken into account and dealt with urgently.
“I don’t have a suitable and quiet learning environment at home. Family members sometimes disturb my learning and there is this constant problem with the internet connection. If the video lags, then I will miss out a chunk of the information from the session.” — Tan Kher Xuan, Form 5 student, published on New Strait Times.
Like any coin or story, there are two sides. However, online learning seems to pose more challenges and burdens, predominantly to teachers and students who reside in rural areas.
The biggest elephant in the room? The digital divide.
It might be hard to comprehend that there are still people in our country who don’t have access to the Internet, especially when we live in an era where the Internet is considered to many as a ‘bare necessity’.
“However, in rural and remote areas such as the Orang Asal villages in Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak, the coverage of the Internet is limited. Some villages do not even have access to electricity, or it is very limited for night-time usage,” said Ya Hin Wan, a research manager of social policy unit at IDEAS Malaysia.
Parents would also need to be educated, in order to help provide guidance to their children, as children with parents who are less educated would be left to figure out themselves on how to utilise and learn via the platforms.
As stated in an article by Free Malaysia Today, several teachers have come forward to stress internet connectivity as the main issue in conducting their classes online. To many students from remote districts or are of the B40 group, internet service is considered prohibitive. The cost of subscribing to a broadband service with unlimited quota at home is around RM89 to RM299 per month, which is an exorbitant sum for them to foot the bill.
Even if they do manage to get their hands on the utility, it is not a deniable fact that people in the city centers just have a better privilege to enjoy considerably faster Internet as opposed to those living in less developed areas. To paint a lucid picture, people in Kuala Lumpur are enjoying high-speed Internet up to 800 megabytes per second but, in Sarawak (East Malaysia), the Internet speed is much slower, with some areas in the state having no access to Internet service at the same time.
A low internet speed would restrain students from joining online real-time classes as such platforms used for their educational purposes require a strong and quick internet connection. The delivery of lessons from teachers could also be affected if network bandwidth issues were to occur due to lags and glitches.
Based on the ICT Use and Access by Individuals and Households Survey by the Department of Statistics Malaysia 2019, computer usage in far-flung domains stand at only 54% while Malaysians who live in urban areas have a sharp amount of 74%. This shows that Malaysians who live in rural settings are also clearly left behind when it comes to technology access.
Another study reported in The Star involving more than 670,000 parents and up to 900,000 students in Malaysia found out that 6% of them have a personal computer, 5.76% have a tablet, 9% have a laptop and 46% have a smartphone. More than one third or 36.7% don’t even own a device.
Some factors that contribute to this cause are households not being able to afford mobile devices for their children. Thus, they will have to share their available digital tools with their siblings and parents.
The Parent Action Group for Education (PAGE) Malaysia chairman, Datin Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim has said in Malay Mail, “most homes only possess smartphones or those who have adequate internet access may have one laptop or desktop only which some parents may require for work,”
And it’s true. Some devices are incapable to support online learning. We tend to assume that everyone today has computers or at least smartphones, but we must remember that there are homes without computers or only with outdated ones, where Internet connection is slow or inaccessible and data is limited.
These limitations are what will strain students from learning online as they lack the necessary facilities needed, such as high-speed internet connections and assistive technologies.
Besides that, for schools that have been relying on the conventional methods of teaching, transitioning to a completely new channel is not easier said than done.
A 2010 ministry study revealed that about 80 percent of educators spend less than an hour a week using ICT, and about a third of students perceive their teachers to use ICT on a daily basis. The infrequent practice of digital instruments in classrooms have caused both students and teachers to struggle to adapt the change. Most students and teachers are still lacking technological knowledge since they are not well-equipped to understand how digital learning/teaching works. This may discourage them from continuing education online.
Teaching online requires one to be digitally literate as such sessions need more effort, attention, and commitment unlike face-to-face classes. Unfortunately, many teachers are still not technologically savvy. Although some students who have mastered social applications like Instagram and TikTok, you will be surprised to know that they can’t even perform simple tasks like attaching files to emails, browsing on virtual websites, or storing files properly.
Another aspect to consider why online learning isn’t feasible is the students’ environment.
Some students may not be able to participate in online classrooms as their surroundings do not permit them so, particularly if they come from broken homes. For instance, while a child from a resourceful family is able to access the internet and learn in an air-conditioned room, the same cannot be said for a kid born in an Orang Asli settlement or who lives in a low-cost PPR flat.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) has proposed students who lack access to technology to opt into TV Pendidikan. TV Pendidikan is a Malaysian educational television network owned, produced and operated by the Educational Technology Division, Ministry of Education Malaysia. The network aired educational programmes for various school subjects.
This however, assumes that all children already have access to television.
The solution utilised at Pensiangan, Sabah, printed study materials are sent to students with limited or no Internet connection in Sabah’s rural Pensiangan district. District education officer Norah Marcus said from a survey conducted by Education Department officials, only about 30% of students in the district had Internet access.
The Neutrals.
“Online learning actually acts in the students’ best interest as long as they have the right resources beside them.” — A Teacher
So, that begs the question, should the education system make the switch to online learning? While we can’t deny the fact that we are living in a world that’s rapidly digitalizing everything, we think that the idea of it is still very far-fetched into the future. However, we can see that the currently implemented MCO has definitely sent an urgent wake-up call to Malaysians on the importance of online learning as well as how digital literacy is an epoch-making skill for both students and teachers to embrace.
“E-learning is the future of education. Teachers need to start learning and using technology in the classroom, and parents need to be on-board with supporting schools in utilising digital education tools.” said a firm believer of technology’s role in improving education, SMK Air Molek, Melaka, principal Norsiah Abd Rahman in The Star.
Until we can close the gap between the divide, until we can find to make online education accessible to all, online learning will still continue to be a barricade in the Malaysian education system.
Sources
Jiyuan Yu & Zi Hu, Is online learning the future of education?, World Economic Forum, September 2, 2020, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/09/is-online-learning-the-future-of-education/
University of Illinois, Strengths and Weaknesses of Online Learning, n.d., https://www.uis.edu/ion/resources/tutorials/online-education-overview/strengths-and-weaknesses/
Murniati Karim, English teachers co-teach online to ensure efficient e-learning, New Strait Times, April 14, 2020, https://www.nst.com.my/education/2020/04/584270/english-teachers-co-teach-online-ensure-efficient-e-learning
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