KUALA LUMPUR: The Education Ministry should focus on enhancing the free-to-view TV Okey channel as the main educational medium for home-based learning.
Parent Action Group for Education chairman Datin Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim said Radio Televisyen Malaysia’s TV Okey channel, which airs the educational programme Kelas@Rumah, was a good medium to be used throughout phase three of the Movement Control Order (MCO).
She said the channel, which broadcasts the programme daily, should be accessible to school students nationwide.
“For those who do not have or have limited access to the Internet, it will be harder to reach out to them with online-based programmes.
“The teachers as well as the programmes televised are very good and should be more accessible to students in rural areas.”
Noor Azimah, however, pointed out that there were flaws in the programme, which was introduced to assist learning at home since the MCO started.
She said the one-hour programme that aired twice a day only focused on students who were facing major examinations.
“This educational channel is the answer and the government has dedicated channels, but there must be some planning done, perhaps a channel guide to help students know which year the programme is for at an allocated time.”
She said even though a guide was available on the Education Ministry website, it was hard for those without Internet access to get it.
“It helps that the students have a medium to learn from if the channel has a guide.
“They would be able to follow (programmes that air at) a specific time and would rely less on their parents who might be working from home.”
She said she had been following the channel since Monday and found that it was sometimes hard to read the instructions for exercises on the screen and hoped that this would be looked into.
On Friday, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin had instructed the Education Ministry to implement a home-based learning initiative throughout the MCO, which has been extended until April 28.
Muhyiddin said the initiative was to ensure education was not be neglected during the MCO.
The National Parent-Teacher Association suggested ways to improve the e-learning process at home.
Its president, Associate Professor Datuk Dr Mohamad Ali Hassan, suggested that the e-learning system could be improved through hard and soft skills introduced by the Higher Education Minister in collaboration with the Communications and Multimedia Ministry.
He said to have e-learning fully utilised, feedback from parents, guardians and teachers must be considered, as well as empowering e-learning experts for nationwide implementation.
“E-learning will be made better when the district and state Education Departments are turned into main coordination centres for teaching and learning.
“This will ensure that the content of subjects are accessible, relevant and does not burden students and allows for effective monitoring and assessment.
“There should be more accessible and quality e-learning education. There must be different approaches to interacting with students based on intellectual, physical, emotional, spiritual and social aspects.”
Ali said the ministry should encourage reading among students, teachers, parents and guardians during the MCO by providing quality reading materials in e-book format.
“The ministry perhaps can create a study timetable throughout the MCO and allow family involvement in the e-learning process.”