The Malaysian Ministry of Education has announced that digital textbooks will be implemented in Malaysian schools in stages beginning from this year. To be offered as an alternative to physical textbooks, the move will see students being able to access their textbooks online from this year onwards.
The implementation of digital textbooks is yet another step in the 13-year Malaysia Education Blueprint (Pelan Pembangunan Pendidikan Malaysia (PPPM)), which spans from 2013 until 2025. The gradual introduction of digital textbooks will see the move being staggered into three stages, where the first stage will see students offered both physical and digital textbooks via the 1Bestarinet platform. Currently, the ministry notes that there are already 313 textbooks uploaded and available online via 1Bestarinet.
The second stage, which will be implemented from 2016 to 2020, will see digital textbooks that are more interactive for selected subjects, with graphics, video elements and even animations introduced to aid students’ learning processes. The final stage, to be implemented from 2021 until 2025, will see all textbooks converted into digital formats, and students will be allowed to bring their own tablets to access the textbooks.
