It is interesting to observe the reaction of the Ministry of Education (MOE) of Singapore with regards to the H1N1 virus outbreak in Singapore. With enforced quarantine of students and teachers a possible scenario with the start of the new school term this week (in fact, it has become a reality)an opportunity has arisen for Singapore to show the world how far it has gone with the use of ICT for education at the school level.

Initially, there were announcements that schools are ready to go online when the MOE was contemplating extending the school holidays for one week. The MOE claimed that schools were ready to do so. Then the MOE announced that all schools would open except for those that had a certain number of H1N1 victims.

Strange then, that after all that assurance of online lessons being ready, suddenly the MOE is talking about students being given learning packages for them to bring home to offset the school hours missed. There is no more mention of online learning.

One wonders why? Is the MOE not confident that its teachers can deliver suitable online learning materials for students confined at home? Why is this so after more than a decade of the much lauded MasterPlan for IT in Education (MPITE)? Sure the MPITE is not just about online learning, but surely MOE would have to think that online learning is one important aspect of it? Why waste an opportunity to show what ICT can do in such times as this?

In fact one even wonders why MOE decided to go ahead with the starting of the new school term at all when it is clear that the situation is becoming worse with local infections rising? Is it just to show that the show must go on and pretend that there is a semblance of normalcy? Or is it because MOE knows that its teachers are far from prepared to provide good online learning for their students? I wouldn’t be surprised at all if MOE has been receiving feedback from the schools that they are worried about “lost” curriculum hours.

Whatever the reasons are, it is an opportunity lost! We have spent billions on the ICT infrastructure and lots of man hours on training the teachers to be able to use ICT for education. Schools have even spend more money on licensed use of online learning portals operated by commercial vendors. Seems like none of these is good enough to replace the physical white board and traditional teacher talk.

PS. Please do not erase this post.