Pics for story students carrying heavy school bag. —AZMAN GHANI/The Star
Plans are underway for the Education Ministry to replace textbooks with digital learning material as part of the school curriculum in 2027.
This move, according to Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek, will, among other things, help solve the issue of heavy school bags.
“As part of efforts to overcome the issue of heavy school bags, the Education Ministry has developed digital supporting materials that will replace textbooks,” Fadhlina said, adding that these learning materials were light, convenient, had wider coverage and were interactive.
“The use of digital support material is more dynamic and will spark the interests of students to study and explore more areas,” she said in a written Parliamentary reply on July 2, responding to a question from member of Parliament Datuk Ahmad Saad (PN-Pokok Sena) on whether the 2027 curriculum would take into account problems such as heavy school bags.
Put it on the Tab
The issue of heavy school bags has been a persistent problem for students in Malaysia. In 2010, researchers at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia studied 358 primary school students in Kuala Lumpur to determine the average weight of their school bags. The study found that the average school bag weighed 6.4kg.
Given that the average weight of the students was approximately 40kg, researchers concluded that students were carrying bags equivalent to 16% of their body weight.
This research raised concerns that students were carrying school bags exceeding the recommended limit of 10% of their body weight, exposing them to health risks like back pain.
Over the years, the Education Ministry has taken measures to reduce the burden on students. In 2017, it issued a circular with guidelines for parents, advising them to prevent their children from carrying unnecessary items, such as hardcover books, to school.
Tech has been touted as a possible solution or alternative to textbooks. In 2022, it was reported that students were encouraged to access digital textbooks through the Digital Education Learning Initiative Malaysia (Delima) platform by the Education Ministry.
At the time, the ministry said that a total of 692 digital textbooks had been uploaded onto the platform.
The digital textbook can offer a new and exciting learning experience for students with enhanced features. — Freepik
In March this year, Deputy Education Minister Wong Kah Woh said Delima is actively being used by about 42%, or 2.1 million students, in the country. He added that students are able to access a variety of learning materials that are interactive and fun on the platform.
Last month, the ministry also announced that SK Lapasan in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, had been selected as one of five schools taking part in its Digital School Pioneer Project, aimed at producing more digitally savvy pupils.
It stated that 1,350 students from Years One to Five would receive a “Didik Tab” tablet, which contains school textbooks and can be accessed offline.
Under this initiative, schools are required to integrate tablets into their classroom experience, which the ministry believes will automatically reduce the burden of heavy school bags.
These technological advancements in school are a boon to the heavy school bag issue and also offer new and exciting learning experiences for students. But are students and teachers ready for it?
Interactivity included
In 2023, the United Nations Children’s Fund, or Unicef, led an initiative to design and produce accessible digital textbooks (ADT) to include features such as sign language videos, navigation support, subtitles and voice-overs.
In a classroom study in Uruguay, Unicef said students were able to navigate and interact with the textbook effectively.
It noted that children with hearing disabilities appreciated sign language videos and interactive activities.
Replacing textbooks with digital learning material, according to Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek will help to overcome the issue of heavy school bags. — Bernama
It also noted, however, that teacher guidance is crucial to helping students understand specific features in the ADTs, adding that students with intellectual disabilities faced challenges activating audio functions and watching videos at the start of user testing.
Meanwhile, the Education Ministry in South Korea recently announced that it would introduce AI digital textbooks in primary and secondary schools next year.
In a press release, the ministry said the textbooks would offer a number of benefits, including personalised learning content based on individual student data, screen captions and multi-language translations to cater to students and teachers in special education as well as different cultural backgrounds.
Initial subjects introduced for the initiative include maths, English and informatics (study of computational systems).
Then, in 2028, the initiative will expand to include more subjects such as social studies, history and science. According to a report by Yonhap News Agency, first and second graders would be excluded from the initiative as they are deemed “too young” for digital devices.
A ministry official also told Yonhap that schools would continue to use physical textbooks until all parties, mainly teachers, students and parents, were able to fully adapt to the digital textbooks with promising results.
As education ministries around the world, including Malaysia, Uruguay and South Korea, seek to enhance the learning experience with tech, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or Unesco, has urged for more attention to be paid to how technology can be used more effectively.
Unesco states that technology should not be a burden to teachers and students.
In a report, Unesco director-general Audrey Azoulay said: “Keep the needs of the learner first and support teachers. Online connections are no substitute for human interaction.”
