DidikTV: Opportunity for parents, PTAS to play role for educational excellence

KUALA TERENGGANU: Almost everything is in place, with the special terrestrial Education TV channel, DidikTV Kementerian Pedidikan Malaysia (DidikTV KPM), being the latest effort to facilitate home-based teaching and learning (PdPR) for students nationwide.

President of the Association of Universiti Malaya’s Foundation in Science Graduates (PLAS), Datuk Ir Wan Nazari Yusoff said the effectiveness of education currently depends on parents’ attitude in monitoring their children's activities at home now that various facilities have been provided by the government for Malaysians to adapt to home-based learning.

"DidikTV should have been implemented earlier, when schools were ordered to close last year, but it is still not too late for Malaysians to adapt to this new education system.

"Now, there is no more excuse, like no device or poor Internet access because DidikTV is the best solution. I also see the need for the Parents and Teachers Association (PTA) to play an important role in assessing the students’ level of understanding so that it can be done more comprehensively," he said when contacted Bernama.

Wan Nazari, who is former PTA president of Batu Rakit Integrated Boarding School in Kuala Nerus, said every member of the PTA committee could be appointed as a mentor.

"The mentor-mentee concept involving parents, teachers and PTA committee members, by appointing them as mentors is important to ensure effectiveness of the implementation of DidikTV and other PdPR methods to achieve the set goals," he said.

DidikTV, launched by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin last Wednesday, can be viewed through channel 107 on MYTV, channel 147 on ASTRO and channel ntv7 on UNIFI TV, from 7am to midnight daily in an effort by the Education Ministry to increase access to quality education for students nationwide.

For the headmaster of Sekolah Kebangsaan Felda Tersat, Hulu Terengganu, Nor Suhaimi Abdul Latif, DidikTV will be more attractive to students because its audio visual system is more beautiful, clearer and larger depending on the size of the television at home.

He said it can also be watched at any time, either live or on repeat broadcast, and enable parents to save on purchase of Internet data.

“What parents need to do is to just monitor their children, by making sure the children follow the PdPR session according to the schedule provided.

“As for the teachers, they can give homework or 'googlesheet' for students to do either before or after the broadcast, whereby students can send in the assignments by dropping them at the school's guard house or at a selected community centre, which will then be picked up by the teacher.

“If it is through googlesheet, the teacher can check the student's work straightaway when the student completes it online," he said, adding that DidikTV is the best choice for students, especially in the rural areas.

Meanwhile, principal of SMK Seri Cheneh, Kemaman, Mohamad Saberi Salleh said the DidikTV broadcast period from morning to night provides an opportunity for parents to jointly monitor their children’s PdPR activities , especially for the working parents.

"Every teaching and learning is planned based on the Annual and Weekly Lesson Plan by the teachers. In this case, teachers need to have the DidikTV Plan schedule so that what is planned is in line with their schedule.

"In terms of assessing students' understanding, teachers can still monitor by using the WhatsApp application to continue to guide their students," he said and expressed hope that all quarters, especially parents and students, to make full use of DidikTV.

-- BERNAMA