MDeC, which is custodian of the MSC Malaysia initiative, said upgrading work will be done in three phases beginning with 15 schools this year, 15 more next year and 20 in 2011. Its senior manager of smart schools, Norrizan Razali, said that 50 schools located nationwide will be modelled after the country's pioneer 88 smart schools and that MDeC will use a different approach to upgrade the rural schools to smart schools.
MDeC and the ministry will also help the teaching faculty in each of the rural schools to optimise the ICT facilities given to them and will ensure that proper technical support is in place. 'By the end of this project, MDeC also hopes to have a model to transform more rural schools into smart schools,' said Norrizan. The upgrading of these schools, she said, gives MDeC a chance to get a hands-on approach to developing smart schools in Malaysia. Norrizan said that since the first 88 schools were transformed into smart schools between 2006 and 2008, there are now about 1,737 new smart schools in the country. According to the plan, the Government is promoting the utilisation of ICT in schools to enhance the quality of education in the country.
