Education Minister Maszlee Malik said Education Ministry is planning a new curriculum in line with the needs of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. — Picture by Firdaus Latif

KUALA LUMPUR, July 29 — The academic curriculum must be in tune with the needs of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR4.0), Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik said.

He said a command of the English Language was vital in the era of IR4.0 as new specialised areas will be opened up for future generations.

“We have to admit that the language of technology and the IR 4.0 is based on English. Sciences, all the computing, coding, robotics, these subjects depend on English. If we want to master all those segments and specialisations, we (must) do it in English.

“In the face of the IR 4.0 era, we have to deal with expertise which never existed before, many new fields. So we need to equip our children with IR 4.0 technologies,” he told reporters at a press conference held after launching the Malaysia Education Blueprint (2013 – 2025) Annual Report 2018 at the Bank Negara here.

On the report, Maszlee said there were several successes, including increased enrollment in national pre-schools from 84.3 per cent in 2017 to 85.4 per cent in 2018.

In addition, the ‘Sifar Cicir Murid’ programme which targeted drop-outs in both primary and secondary schools reduced drop-out rates by 26.1 per cent for secondary schools and 25.6 per cent for primary schools.

He said through the efforts to enculture 21st Century Learning (PAK 21) and Higher Order Thinking Skills (KBAT), the ministry increased the number of KBAT schools which achieved ‘excellence’ level to 67 per cent (189 out of 282 schools) last year compared to 4.6 per cent (13 out of 282 schools) in 2017.

“We also upgraded dilapidated schools threefold, from 120 in 2017 to 394 in 2018,” he said.

On a separate development, Maszlee said the ministry would not be amending the schooling hours throughout the country and advised parents to ensure the safety of their children while traveling to school.

He said the ministry would keep the current school hours and there were no plans to change them to earlier or later.

“The ministry is keeping to the current schooling hours, we never made them earlier. So parents and the community should pay attention to the welfare of their children and other children in the surrounding areas,” he said.

He was commenting on a local report about the lack of lighting along routes to schools which could be potentially dangerous to students leaving early for the morning school session as they could be the targets of criminals. — Bernama