Oleh/By : DATO' SERI DR. MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : PUTRA WORLD TRADE CENTRE,
KUALA LUMPUR
Tarikh/Date : 12/11/97
Tajuk/Title : THE 11TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE AND
EXHIBITION OF THE ASIAN ASSOCIATION
OF OPEN UNIVERSITIES
1. It is indeed an honour for me to address this
distinguished gathering at the opening ceremony of the
11th Annual Conference and Exhibition of the Asian
Association of Open Universities.
2. Let me begin by defining what I understand by
distance learning. A little over fifty years ago, in
the middle of this century, in the context of this
country, distance learning was appropriately defined as
having to walk five miles or more from home to school.
For my generation, for most of us, distance learning
meant walking bare-footed to an ill-equipped school.
Now, fifty years later, at the turn of the century,
distance learning has taken on a whole new meaning. It
refers to situations where the learner and the educator
are separated by distance, may be even time, using
telecommunications and electronic devices to
interactively follow the lessons. It allows the learner
to study at his own time, place and pace. In essence,
distance learning means having the school teaching
environment brought to the home or anywhere that the
student chooses to be. Physical attendance in lecture
rooms is no longer necessary.
3. In Malaysia, education has always been accorded
high priority because we have always regarded education
as the key to personal and national progress. Ever
since independence some 20 percent of the national
budget has been allocated to education. Parents endure
many sacrifices in order that their children could get
the best education possible.
4. In our Vision 2020 we targeted the achievement of a
fully developed nation for Malaysia by 2020. To achieve
this we need a highly educated and highly trained
population. We expect 40 percent of our population to
have access to tertiary education compared to 13.9
percent at present. To do this we will have to resort
to distance learning more and more. This is because the
number of teachers or trainers will increase at a lower
rate than students.
5. Accordingly, since 1995 the National Budget has
made special mention about distance learning. The
Finance Minister declared that all institutions of
higher learning should introduce courses to upgrade the
knowledge and skills of working people through distance
learning, if they had not already done so.
6. As a matter of fact, distance learning in the
modern sense is not new in Malaysia. In 1971 a local
university began what was then called off campus courses
patterned after the Open University in the United
Kingdom. Today almost all institutions of higher
learning that are Government funded are offering a
variety of courses through their own distance learning
programmes. In the private sector correspondence
courses on various subjects have always been popular.
Now many privately owned tertiary education institutes
are also offering many programmes of distance learning
in collaboration with overseas universities.
7. The 7th Malaysia Plan spanning the five years
between 1996 and 2000 puts distance learning promotion
at an even more crucial level. The allocation to the
Government universities will enable those who otherwise
would not be going to universities but are of university-
going age i.e. between 19 and 24, together with those
already working to get a university level education
through distance learning courses.
8. There will also be short courses aimed at upgrading
the knowledge and skills of the workforce including
those at the managerial and supervisory levels. The
programmes will be better structured, more organised and
carried out on a larger scale through closer co-
operation between the institutions of higher learning
and the commercial sector. New areas of study,
particularly in science, technology and management, will
be introduced.
9. The serious effort taken by the Malaysian
government to expand, strengthen and expedite the
distance learning programmes reflect the current world-
wide trend. Distance learning programmes the world over
are gaining momentum and the years leading to the next
millennium promises to be the most challenging period
for the application of new and innovative technologies
and methods of teaching so as to make the whole world a
challenging period for true knowledge societies.
10. In the information society, there is a definite
shift in the profile and skills of the workforce. As
the economy is increasingly becoming more dependent on
information and knowledge, the demand is not just for a
better educated workforce, but more importantly a
workforce that is continually willing to learn and
relearn through life.
11. Conventional teaching which is rigidly time and
place-dependent is sufficient for the present limited
knowledge-based society. The demand for knowledge-
workers is not so big. But in a knowledge-based society
which is emerging fast, the old methods of teaching will
not be able to produce the number and the levels of
education needed by society. And so not only must we
make tertiary education available to the greatest number
through distance learning but the methods of teaching
must also be changed. As much as learning by rote has
been displaced by learning through understanding,
distance learning would require ways of making
understanding even more easily comprehensible for those
less capable of reasoning and logical thinking. It is a
fact that it is much easier to learn how things work
than why things work the way they do. Having learnt how
then the why can be more easily understood.
12. The computer has made it possible to demonstrate in
very graphic terms the shape of things from every angle
including interiors and to turn the object in any
direction so as to give a proper perspective of whatever
object described through text or orally and to explain
the way things work. Simulation has developed to a high
degree of accuracy as to make the computer image more
real. Virtual reality is really as close to reality as
can be. The student is able to interact with the images
and to ask questions and get the best answer from the
best teacher than if he was in a lecture hall or a
laboratory. With these hardware and software, distance
learning has become an improvement on direct
conventional teaching in classrooms or even
laboratories. This distance learning system will make
even those who before were not considered qualified to
go to universities potential geniuses. Indeed we are
already seeing the university rejects or dropouts
succeeding in life by learning in unconventional ways.
13. With the advance in telecommunication distance
learning knows no distance or time limit. A student may
be anywhere in the world and he will not be deprived
from education. What is more, the education process is
simpler, more comprehensive and more relevant to
whatever it is that he is doing or wants to do. The
technology enables him to do away with inaccurate note-
taking since he can recall on his screen all or any part
of the lesson that he wishes to revise. Indeed he can
test himself as often as he likes so as to know his own
progress and how he would fare in an examination. The
only thing really required of him is diligence, a
willingness to sit in front of computer screens for a
reasonable span of time and to follow the instructions
and the explanations given.
14. With distance learning the student can be on the
move without losing his ability to study. Through
mobile phones and lap-tops, faxes and recordings he will
be free from a tight time-table of lectures or
demonstrations.
15. In Malaysia, these emerging technologies will be
explored and tried out in our Multimedia Super Corridor
project. The MSC is a huge test-bed for trying out not
just these emerging technologies of the information age
and multimedia but also the way of life in the age of
instant and unlimited information.
16. For those of you who may be hearing it for the
first time, the MSC is physically a 15 km by 50 long
corridor that runs from the world's tallest building,
the Kuala Lumpur City Centre, in itself an intelligent
precinct, to a new electronic Government administrative
centre, a new cyber city dedicated to multimedia and on
to the region's largest international airport, Kuala
Lumpur International Airport, KLIA, scheduled to be
operational in 1998.
17. This piece of real estate is almost a green field
site for building of state-of-the art cities and
systems. Half way between the KLCC and KLIA two cities
will house (a) the new administrative capital of
Malaysia while the other (b) will be a cyber city where
we will locate industries, research and development
facilities, a multimedia university and other
institutions and operational head quarters for
multinational corporations to direct world-wide
manufacturing and trading activities using multimedia.
Both cities will have state-of-the-art communications
facilities with fibre to all offices, business premises
and houses.
18. We will initiate the electronic government, media
industry clusters, a web to enable companies to operate
world-wide without having to do much physical travel,
smart schools and the most effective systems of distance
learning and telemedicine.
19. The MSC is regarded as a catalyst to push
Malaysia's industrialisation to the next level. The
development of MSC is part of Malaysia's new strategy
and programme to switch to high technology capital-
intensive industries with special focus on information
and telecommunications-based industries. It is hoped
that part of the MSC will become a collaborative cluster
of universities and corporate research and development
centres, using distance learning techniques to produce
world-class graduates.
20. We hope to see a cluster of local institutions of
higher learning coordinating efforts, sharing resources
and facilities and taking advantage of the emerging
communications technologies to strengthen our distance
learning programmes.
21. We hope also to see that all local institutions of
higher learning linked to a host university located
within the MSC. Let the host university act as the
administrative centre serving other institutions as
participative members. Through such collaborative
effort concentrating on distance learning programmes,
the government will effectively create a huge open
university without actually building a separate
institution. This is tantamount to a cost saving
measure on the part of the Government while an extensive
distance learning programme is implemented
expeditiously.
22. Through this open university concept, the students
are likely to be enrolled at a number of institutions of
higher learning simultaneously. The open university
will provide students with access to local and overseas
lectures and advisors who are truly experts in their
respective fields. Thus will the best courses be
integrated and made available to the largest number of
students.
23. The open university concept will be made more
effective if all institutions of higher learning allow
credit transfer between one another's distance learning
courses. The system can be made even more efficient if
the distance learning programmes consist of modular
curriculum design and partnership can be developed
between member institutions. It is even possible for
the qualification to be awarded not by a particular
institution but named after a particular and prestigious
course conducted by a group of institutions. The host
university located in the MSC can coordinate the courses
and administer the multi-institution programme conducted
by the most respected teachers from the best
universities of the world.
24. Through this concept, courses offered can be at
certificate, diploma, undergraduate and even masters'
levels. More importantly, modular courses, in the mode
of distance learning, can be tailor-made to suit every
industry. This exercise is particularly useful in order
to upgrade staff in specific field of expertise. A good
example is I.T literacy.
25. Recently, Malaysia launched the National I.T
Awareness campaign. We talked about how Malaysians must
start now to master information technology if we want to
have the number of knowledge workers we need. We
stressed the need to be able to use information
technology as a medium to improve our work and the
quality of our life. Based on business plans submitted
by 131 companies, the MSC alone will need 7,000
specially trained workers in its first year of
operations with an increase to 12,000 in its fifth year.
26. The question that begs to be asked is how do we
start? We should not be afraid of technology. We
should master it and apply it in our work. We must
adopt new attitudes and be open to changes brought about
by new technology. We must be willing to learn and
relearn.
27. I sincerely think distance learning is part of the
answer. If the open university concept is accepted and
put to practice with a concerted effort, I believe we
can achieve the goal we have set for ourselves. We can
even achieve the 40 percent target for access to
tertiary education for our population by the year 2020
or earlier. We can also achieve all these against the
background of strengthening traditional values as
stipulated in Vision 2020.
28. I also believe that distance learning programmes
offered by the Malaysian open university should be
opened to ASEAN or even Asian countries. Since the
quality of our education will be of world standard, we
should expect students from all over the world. After
all in the next century people will no longer be
confined to their own countries. They will work
anywhere and everywhere. Studying at a university with
students from all over the world will prepare them for
the global environment they will live and work in.
29. We are also encouraged by the fact that new
communication and information technologies offer the
opportunity to make distance learning international
through the use of interactive compact discs, video
conferencing, computer networking backed as appropriate
with fax, telephone, electronic mail and printed
materials.
30. I would like to invite all member countries of the
Asian Association of Open Universities to consider
making distance learning cross the national boundaries
of the member countries. Indeed I do believe that
distance learning concept of the future would be without
borders.
31. In the year 2020, I see that institutions of higher
learning that offer distance learning programmes will be
linked on a national and global scale by
telecommunications technologies. In the future,
educational systems of distance learning will be
globalised by the emerging telecommunication
technologies. Distance learning will be a definite
choice apart from full-time and part-time study modes.
This will be much encouraged by the desire of every
individual for lifetime education.
32. Let me conclude my remarks by wishing you all a
very successful conference and declare the 11th Annual
Conference of the Asian Association of Open Universities
officially opened.
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