DG: Quality of DidikTV will improve

PETALING JAYA: DidikTV Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia (KPM) will improve as tighter quality control is carried out on future content, says the Education director-general.

Datuk Dr Habibah Abdul Rahim said the Education Ministry needs to have stricter quality control of the videos that will be aired on the television channel that broadcasts educational programmes for Malaysia’s five million school students.

“I hope it (DidikTV KPM) will improve and we will have quality programmes on DidikTV KPM,” she said in an interview yesterday.

She was commenting on a DidikTV KPM video of a science teacher whose video lesson on the reproductive system is being lambasted online for her command of the English language.

The video meant for Year Two pupils in the Dual Language Programme (DLP) has gone viral, and drew criticism for the teacher’s speaking style.

Habibah said the channel, which broadcasts educational content based on the Malaysian national curriculum and co-curriculum, is an ongoing effort from the ministry to improve home-based teaching and learning.

The channel has already increased airtime from two hours per day at the beginning of the movement control order to one dedicated channel with 17 hours of airtime daily, she added.

She said the ministry can help train the teachers in presentation and content.

“Personally, the teacher was very brave to come in front of the camera for the sake of the students.

“There is a lesson to be learnt here from all parties, including the ministry, in ensuring the quality of the content that we produce for television,” she added.

National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) secretary-general Harry Tan said everyone should be fair to the teacher and judge her based on her subject matter.

“Is she teaching Science or English? If she is teaching English, then go ahead with your criticism,” he said, adding that they are trained to teach, not to be television presenters.

Global Teacher Prize 2020 Top 10 finalist Samuel Isaiah took to social media to defend the teacher.

“Teaching is not easy; on top of that, teaching on camera in a second language that you’re not proficient in is extremely arduous,” he said, adding that the teacher “might be awesome” teaching in Bahasa Malaysia.

However, he added, the presentation and the selection process does need to be improved.

There is a lesson to be learnt here from all parties, including the ministry, in ensuring the quality of the content that we produce for television.

Datuk Dr Habibah Abdul Rahim