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Following the radical initiative to switch to digital textbooks, students in Malaysia’s secondary schools will be allowed to bring their personal computer devices to school next year.
This will allow them to access the e-textbooks in class as the Ministry of Education has no plans to supply devices to students yet.
“If parents allow their children to bring tablets for the digital textbooks, then that’s fine,” said Deputy Education Minister Teo Nie Ching.
“We call it ‘bring your own device’ because for next year, [the initiative] is still in the early stages. From there we will monitor the reaction of the students and parents on this initiative.”
She went on to explain the ministry’s plans to introduce the initiative in phases, reported The Star.
Digital textbooks will be made available for lower secondary students in Form One to Three next year. 2020 will see interactive digital textbooks for those in Form Three.
In 2021, interactive e-textbooks will be introduced to those in Form One, Three and Four. By 2020, all secondary students should have access to the technology.
She added that the ministry has taken proactive steps in utilising technology by digitalising textbooks in stages: to date 495 printed textbooks have been uploaded in the PDF format to an educational resource website for students and teachers.