PENANG, 14 November 2016 – The university needs to implement the open education programme in line with the flexible education system to fulfil the demands of skilled workforce in the future, while being able to adapt to current conditions and not merely abiding by requirements set by the Malaysian Ministry of Education.

According to the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) Vice-Chancellor, Professor Datuk Dr. Asma Ismail, educators currently need to apply concepts of problem-solving into the curriculum in dealing with 'editable' changes.

She said that, the current generation of educators needs to have a shift in the teaching and learning mindset and to make adaptations to the current Generation Z for the objectives to be realised.

"In order to produce teachers of good quality, the functions and roles of teachers need to be transformed to cater to the changes of 21^st century education. Thus, it is the responsibility of all Public Universities to offer education programmes which would be responsive to such challenges," she explained.

She added that, being a university that has been accorded the APEX status, the USM School of Educational Studies (PPIP) needs to be the ‘champion’ in shaping the character of 21^st century teachers, and they in turn should be the role models who are willing to initiate paradigm shifts and change the perception of teachers from being information providers to knowledge facilitators.

"Therefore, teachers of this century should be able to function and play the role of an adaptor, a communicator, a learner, a visionary, a leader, a model, a collaborator and a risk-taker;  while effective learning need to be more challenging, caring, captivating, conferring, clarifying, consolidating and controlling," she said when officiating the ‘Seminar Kebangsaan Majlis Dekan-Dekan Pendidikan Universiti Awam Malaysia 2016’ (National Seminar for Public Universities’ Deans of Education Council 2016).

Asma added that, 21st century education would give a balanced emphasis on three important elements in the process of teaching and learning, which are the role of the teacher, students’ characteristics and also the classroom environment.

"Teachers who apply effective teaching practices would surely be able to mold students to become human beings (talent) with 4C characters, namely a critical thinker, communicator, collaborator, (job) creator, and these are the traits that students need to possess to be selected into the current global job market," she continued explaining.

Translation: Mazlan Hanafi Basharudin