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ICT applications have become an important part of teaching and learning. The Ministry of Education has invested a huge effort in terms of funding and training to equip teachers and students with ICT skills. In your opinion what are the issues and challenges in integrating ICT in teaching and learning in our Malaysian Schools.

Respond to this issue in not more than 500 words.

Information and Communication in Technology (ICT) have become an important pat of teaching and learning process. Even though, The Ministry of Education has invested a huge effort in terms of funding and training to equip teachers and students with ICT skills, but there are still issues and challenges in integrating ICT in teaching and learning in our Malaysian Schools. Although valuable lessons may be learned from best practices around the world, there is no one formula for determining the optimal level of ICT integration in the educational system

The significant challenges those policymakers and planners, educators, education administrators, and other need to consider include educational policy and planning, infrastructure, language and content, capacity building, and financing. For example, from the infrastructure side, in the first place are we need to think that are our Malaysian School have an appropriate rooms or buildings available to house the technology or not. In our countries where there are many old school buildings, extensive retrofitting to ensure proper electrical wiring, heating or cooling and ventilation, and safety and security would be needed. Policymakers should also look at the ubiquity of different types of ICT in the country in general, for instance, a basic requirement for computer-based or online learning is access to computers in schools, communities, and households, as well as affordable Internet service.

Then, there are also other challenges that we need to be addressed in the areas of language and content. English is the dominant language of the Internet. An estimated 80% of online content is in English. A large proportion of the educational software produced in the world market is in English. For developing countries in the Asia-Pacific where English language proficiency is not high, especially outside metropolitan areas, this represents a serious barrier to maximizing the educational benefits of the World Wide Web.

In Malaysia, where English is a second language it is imperative that teaching and learning materials that match national curriculum requirements and have locally meaningful content, preferably in the local languages, be developed. This would ensure that the Web is a genuinely multicultural space and that peoples of different cultures have an equal stake and voice in the global communities of learning and practice online. Particularly vulnerable to exclusion of this sort are isolated, rural populations, cultural minorities, and women in general. Thus attention must be paid to their special needs.

Various competencies must be developed throughout the educational system for ICT integration to be successful in our Malaysian Schools. It will be meaningless for The Ministry of Education to do such a huge effort in terms of funding and training to equip teachers and students with ICT skills, but there are still issues and challenges in integrating ICT in teaching and learning in our Malaysian Schools. So, The Ministry of Education must consider all the challenges in integrating ICT in education to achieve the goal and the purpose of ICT integration in our Malaysian Schools.