Vol 4 No 1 (2010) Acceleration and Improvement of the Quality and Quantity of Education through ICT Based School/Universities Partnership

Emeritus Emeritus - Open University Malaysia

Anuwar Ali - Open University Malaysia

Abstract

Teacher training and education is an imperative target for many nations including Malaysia. The Ministry of Education (MOE) takes a serious stand in the issue ofteacher quality and qualification; with the introduction of the Special Degree Programme forNon-Graduate and In-Service Teachers to upgrade their academic qualifications.  Open University Malaysia (OUM) has been chosen to be the partner in this programme,  under which the university has successfully produced about 11,200 graduate teachers during the last eight years. This paper illustrates the salient features ofthe OUM-MOE partnership that was, from the outset, strategically planned on the basic need to achieve quality  education  for the teaching  profession.  Thus,  all  aspects of the delivery  system have been tailored  towards this  important imperative which includes the adoption of'Ol.M's blended pedagogy.

It is also in this context that the leveraging on information and communication technology (ICT), via OUM's Learning Management System (myLMS,), e-learning, iRadio and digital library, has become a significant component of the teaching and learning process. In a nutshell, this paper thus highlights how open and distance learning (ODL), through its flexibility and accessibility, has been able to benefit training and education as well as enable MOE to save substantial costs on every teacher trained. To ensure the success of this OUM-MOE partnership, the university gives emphasis on the principal objective of this enterprise so as to instil professionalism, commitment, good ethics and quality awareness in teachers, thus contributing to the enhancement of the country’s education sector.