Malaysia considers UK e-learning platform

Malaysia is studying a radical British e-learning method to help 'leapfrog' the learning and teaching system in schools, said deputy prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, reports The Star.

He expressed interest in the Frog Learning Platform which could be customised for Malaysian schools as part of overall efforts to further raise the standard of education. Muhyiddin said the creative learning and teaching programme focusing on ICT had been successfully implemented in selected British schools.

Frog offers creative control, enabling teachers, administrative staff and pupils to fully embed their learning platform into their working practices and tailor it to the needs of their respective schools.

Non-profit organisation the eLearning Network (eLN) is beginning its first full year as a community interest company (CIC) and in its last year as an unincorporated body saw membership rise ten-fold, states UKPRwire. Now that it is a CIC, its membership stands at over 2 000.

“This rapid growth in our membership reflects not just the increase in interest in all things to do with e-learning but also illustrates how technology-delivered learning is touching more and more aspects of our economy - throughout the private and public sectors as well as in academia,” commented Clive Shepherd, chair of the CIC.

Shepherd said: “Recent surveys have shown how e-learning is progressing in terms of usage in the UK, but they also demonstrate just how much organisations are being held back because of a lack of skills and knowledge relating to e-learning.”

To make Nigeria's quest for a place among the 20 economies of the world by 2020 feasible, access to ICT at all levels of the education sector should be accorded priority, the minister of education Sam Egwu has said, according to Next.

Egwu, who spoke while inaugurating the committees to drive e-learning initiative in Nigeria, said in Abuja at the weekend that e-learning is a logical and strategic approach to effect the much needed technological transformation in Nigeria.

"As a nation and key player in world affairs, Nigeria cannot afford to be left trailing behind other nations in the global ladder of ICT. We must, therefore, mobilise our resources in partnership with the private sector, in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, Education for All goals and the seven-point agenda of the present administration," he said.