By Karen Chapman

PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia - The Education Ministry hopes to upgrade another 5% of the country's 10,000 schools to a five-star rating under the Smart School Qualification Standards (SSQS) by the end of the year.

There are presently about 500 schools with five-star ratings.

Education director-general Tan Sri Alimuddin Mohd Dom said the ministry's target was to rate 75% of schools at three-star and 20% at four-star by December this year.

"A total of 8,454 schools were rated using the SSQS last year. Of the total, 7,575 schools ranked from three to five stars," he told reporters after receiving a report on the status of rural smart schools from Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) chief executive officer Datuk Badlisham Ghazali and the ministry's Educational Technology Division director Datin Dr Siti Zaleha Abdullah Sani yesterday.

Alimuddin said the ministry would rate all 10,000 schools this year.

The SSQS is a set of standards with indicators to measure the school's achievements in four areas namely utilisation, human capital, application and infrastructure, with ranking that range from one star to five stars.

Alimuddin said the ministry had been working with Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) since 2009 to transform 15 rural schools to become benchmarked rural smart schools under the Rural Smart School Programme.

"We had 15 rural schools in the first phase which started last year and they have shown a marked improvement in the usage of ICT," he said.

He said SJKT Vageesar in Kuala Selangor was one such example.

Badlisham said based on the SSQS, of the 15 rural schools, one had obtained five stars, 13 were rated four stars and one had three stars.

-The Star/Asia News Network

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