Oleh/By : DATO SERI DR MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : KUALA LUMPUR
Tarikh/Date : 26/08/2002
Tajuk/Title : MAJLIS PELANCARAN UNIVERSITI
TERBUKA MALAYSIA
Versi :
Penyampai : PM
Terlebih dahulu saya bersyukur kepada Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala kerana dengan limpah kurnianya kita
dapat bertemu di Majlis yang mulia ini, iaitu Majlis
Pelancaran Universiti Terbuka Malaysia.
2. Saya berasa amat sukacita dapat berucap kepada tuan-
tuan dan puan-puan pada majlis yang bermakna, sempena
pelancaran Universiti Terbuka Malaysia.
3. Semasa Malaysia mencapai kemerdekaan, rakyat
Malaysia mewarisi pesaka ekonomi dan kebudayaan yang
berlandaskan sumber asli pertanian, dan industri
berintensif buruh. Walaubagaimanapun, dalam tempoh 45
tahun kita merdeka kita telah berjaya mengubah struktur
ekonomi Malaysia kepada ekonomi berasaskan industri dan
pembuatan. Kemajuan ini tergendala sedikit akibat
krisis kewangan 1997. Walaupun kita telah berjaya
menangani masalah itu, tetapi kita telah merasai
keperitan. Masa depan tidak menjamin keperitan ini
tidak akan menimpa kita sekali lagi.
4. Namun, Malaysia akan terus merancang untuk
memajukan sosio-ekonominya dengan memberi tumpuan
menyediakan ketahanan rakyatnya dengan menguasai segala
ilmu melalui didikan formal dan informal.
5. Sejak merdeka kita banyak melabur dalam pendidikan.
Dalam kesemua Rancangan 5 tahun Malaysia, pendidikan
menelan belanja yang amat besar. Dalam tempoh yang baru
berlalu kita telah menstrukturkan semula sektor
pendidikan melalui perundangan, meningkatkan dana untuk
pinjaman dan biasiswa dan menubuhkan universiti awam dan
swasta untuk menambah peluang bagi anak-anak kita
memperolehi pendidikan universiti. Ini adalah kerana
kita sentiasa mempercayai bahawa penguasaan ilmu melalui
pendidikan akan menolong menaikkan taraf hidup dan
mengimbangkannya antara kaum. Justeru itu bagi generasi
yang akan datang - di dalam era k-ekonomi (knowledge
economy) - peranan dan sumbangan institusi pengajian
tinggi iaitu universiti amatlah penting.
6. Today we are already in the knowledge based -
economy. Industrial production is shifting steadily
from labour-intensive to knowledge-intensive. A
radically new system for creating wealth has evolved
through the development and application of new
knowledge.
7. In a very real sense, nations have to enter a new
age - an age of knowledge - in which the key strategic
resource necessary for prosperity has become knowledge
itself, through educated and knowledgeable people and
their ideas. Unlike natural resources, such as tin and
rubber, which had driven earlier economic
transformations in Malaysia, knowledge is inexhaustible.
The more it is used, the more it will multiply and
expand. But knowledge is available only to those who are
trained to absorb and apply it. Hence the need for
institutions to train people to absorb and to apply
knowledge meaningfully and productively. There can
never be a surfeit of institutions of learning at all
levels. Certainly at the higher levels the need would
be ever greater. New ways of meeting this need must be
found continuously.
8. The development of communication technology has
thrown up new ideas on how to spread knowledge to the
biggest number of people. It used to be that the
student had to sit at the feet of his teacher to learn.
Then there were classes and lecture halls and TV sets in
order for the teacher to be heard and seen by ever
greater number of students. But today the reach of the
teacher is truly limitless. Through television
broadcasts, through educational software, through DVD,
lessons can not only be reached by students thousands of
miles away, but video conferencing enables the teacher
to interact directly with the students literally
anywhere in the world.
9. The compact disc and the computer can actually be
owned and operated by students for self-study. It is
possible to actually see the teacher, hear him teach,
ask him questions and get the answers and go through the
lessons as many times as needed. Whole classes can
gain access to these lessons and to interact with the
teacher, guided by a facilitator, without the teacher
being actually present. Pictures, cartoons, video clips
could all be used to enable the lessons to be better
understood. Tests can be carried out and the score
determined. We are indeed living in an age when
knowledge, unlimited knowledge, and learning can be
acquired by anyone, anywhere at a fraction of the cost
charged in the past. All these create greater access to
education at the highest levels and in turn this ease of
access to education creates greater demands. While
before the university educated made up a privileged few,
now the majority of the population even in a developing
country can be made up of the university educated. A
knowledge society can now be created by practically any
country, a society able to cope with the knowledge based
economy.
10. With the launch of this open university, Malaysia
is taking the opportunity offered by the new
communication technology to make university education
available to the people. It will take time of course
for all the people to gain access to this high level of
education but it will not take too long.
11. The concept of the open university is not new.
Distance learning had been made available in many
developed countries several decades now. In Malaysia we
had introduced off-campus courses quite successfully.
But today we are set to see off- campus distance
learning really take off. The interaction between the
off-campus students and their teachers at the
universities or even at purely non-campus university
status teaching institutions is entirely possible.
Again this is not new as many people had gained good
training and education through correspondence courses by
non-university educational enterprises based largely in
the United Kingdom even before World War II. The only
thing that needs to be done now is to avail ourselves of
the excellent multi-media communication system which our
country is well-equipped with.
12. The danger lies in the unscrupulous offering
education which are of low standards and even merely
selling certificates, diplomas and degrees without
bothering to conduct courses and to assess the level of
knowledge acquired. This unscrupulous people will bring
disrepute to distance learning and even to the country.
A certain degree of competence must be determined for
all educational institutions and obviously there must be
adequate supervision.
13. The Government has set up a board of accreditation,
Lembaga Akreditasi Nasional, to oversee the private
education industry and to ensure that they achieve a
standard that is consistent and proper for the level of
qualification that they offer. The LAN is necessary
even though some of the genuine and competent
institutions may be irked by its interfering in the
running of their institutions, the qualifications
offered and the quality of teachers and amenities that
they have. In the end it is for the good of the genuine
institutions that LAN ensures standards are maintained
for they will be freed of the bad reputation brought
about by the fly-by-night operators and their
competition for students. The Government cannot and
will not allow private educational institution to be
absolutely free of Government supervision. It may be
necessary at a later stage to charge for the
certificates accorded the genuine institutions.
14. The education industry in Malaysia is booming.
Where before the Government monopolised tertiary
education, today the private sector is allowed to own
and operate educational institutions up to university
level. There are now more than 600 private educational
institutions giving courses and training at all levels.
Some are very small while others are full-fledged
universities.
15. Malaysia aspires to be a centre of excellence for
education. We want to be able to provide for all the
educational needs of our people. In addition we want to
be able to offer good education to foreign students.
While Malaysia is not the cheapest place, we are more
competitive than many of the countries we send our
students to for further education. We should exploit
this competitiveness in order to grow our education
industry, an industry that is regarded as a service
industry which can contribute towards the growth of our
economy. Merely by reducing the number of our students
going abroad, we can already reduce the outflow of
foreign exchange and bolster our reserves. The
Government is therefore encouraging the education
industry not merely to provide education at the highest
level for Malaysians but also to contribute to the
nation's economic well being.
16. The stress in education has also shifted in keeping
with the direction of the country's economic and
industrial policy. This shift is also seen in most
other countries. We are therefore focusing on science,
technology and mathematics, the basis of today's
industry and economic development.
17. In order to extend the teaching of these subjects
to off-campus students, a field that requires attention
is the development of educational software. In the past
and even now books and journals help to make knowledge
available to a bigger number of students. Today
computer educational software will do the job even
better and more effectively. It is imperative that
universities contribute to the teaching and development
of software programming skills. There is no doubt that
the country with the greatest number of software writers
and engineers will help in the spread of knowledge.
Today software engineers are among the most employable
and highly paid people. In distance learning, software
will play a crucial and ever more effective role.
Universities cannot neglect this discipline if they want
to be recognised as premier universities.
18. With the need for more people to acquire knowledge,
part time education becomes very important. People will
have to study and work at the same time in order to
support themselves. The conventional universities will
not be able to cater for this category of people. But
open universities can easily accomodate the irregular
time that part time students need. Courses can be
tailored so that students can work with flexi time. Any
combination of full-time studies with part time courses
can be arranged. This way workers need not be without
the opportunity to get better education and
qualification while they work.
19. Clearly there is a big role for off-campus distant
learning institutions. It will probably become bigger
than on-campus university education. It will help
produce the knowledge workers so essential for our IT
and knowledge-based industries. It will make our
country proficient and capable of competing in a world
that is being propelled by knowledge through the new
communication technologies.
20. I have been following the developments of the Open
University Malaysia (OUM) since its registration last
year. I am indeed pleased to note that O.U.M. is
responding to our society's needs. The university's
philosophy of using Open and Distance learning any
place, any time, provides opportunities for a large
cross section of the Malaysian society especially for
the working populace. The use of blended pedagogy;
printed modules, multimedia in the form of CD ROMs,
audio, video makes it not only interesting and
attractive but effective for the learner. Although
Distant and Open, O.U.M., I understand, has not
compromised on the quality of education. The best
subject matter experts have been sourced from local
varsities, industry and professionals and learning
materials have been thoroughly vetted by external
experts.
21. It is heartening to note that Malaysians have
responded enthusiastically to O.U.M. and its product
offerings, so much so that in less than a year the
university has a student enrolment of over 7,000 in more
than 15 different study programmes. This must be a
record of sorts for a university in Malaysia. Let me
take this opportunity to congratulate the staff for
doing a good job.
22. Clearly, higher education will flourish in the
decades ahead. In a knowledge-intensive society, the
need for advanced education will become ever more
pressing, both for individuals and society. Yet, it also
is likely that the university, as it stands today will
change in profound ways to serve a changing world. The
real question is not whether higher education will be
transformed, but rather how and by whom. If the
university is capable of transforming itself to respond
to the needs of a culture of learning, then what is
currently perceived as the challenge of change may
become the opportunity for a renaissance in higher
education in the years ahead.
23. Universiti Terbuka Malaysia adalah sebuah
universiti yang agak unik. Walaupun sebuah universiti
swasta tetapi pemiliknya ialah 11 IPTA. Dengan kata lain
`Open University Malaysia' akan beroperasi sebagai satu
`private enterprise' tetapi dengan tanggungjawab sosial
yang tinggi. Justeru itu saya juga berharap 11 IPTA yang
terlibat akan memberi sokongan penuh kepada `Open
University Malaysia' demi menjayakan program
pembelajaran sepanjang hayat yang sangat penting
terutama untuk Malaysia membentuk satu masyarakat yang
belajar sepanjang hayat. Di masa-masa yang akan datang
daya persaingan negara akan bergantung kepada ilmu dan
kemahiran yang ada pada rakyatnya. Oleh yang demikian
`Open University Malaysia' mempunyai satu tanggungjawab
yang penting. Saya sungguh berharap `Open University
Malaysia' akan sentiasa peka kepada keperluan ilmu
pengetahuan dan kemahiran yang harus disampaikan kepada
pelajar-pelajarnya.
24. Dengan itu, saya dengan sukacita merasmikan
Universiti Terbuka Malaysia atau `Open University
Malaysia'.
Sumber : Pejabat Perdana Menteri
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