RMK-12: Focus on advancing digital skills in Malaysia

THE role of the digital worker has evolved quickly, speeded up by the pandemic. It is now not only paramount for the Malaysian workforce to be digitally-literate but to also be able to be productive and increasingly value-add in the world we live in. However, statistics have indicated that the majority of Malaysians use ICT at a basic level. Firstly, in 2020, only 13.1 per cent of Malaysians know programming (which is a 2.5 per cent increase from 2019)(Information Communication and Technology Household Survey (ICTHS) Report 2020, Department of Statistics Malaysia). Even more worryingly, only 38.8 per cent of individuals surveyed know how to use presentation software (ICTHS Report 2020, DOSM), a skill needed as one of the main means of communication in the virtual world. Among youths, the statistics are slightly higher - 45.1 per cent for the latter, and 17.6 for the former skill. Meanwhile, a high proportion (98 percent) of Malaysians use the internet to participate in social networks, and 76.3 per cent use email, only 9.2 per cent use the World Wide Web to upload content for their own website, 8.3 per cent for income-generating activity, and 18 per cent do undertake a formal online course. These statistics demonstrate Malaysians use the internet for socialising, and perhaps as partial knowledge users, but not many utilise the full power of the internet for knowledge and income generation. Therefore, although the digital transformation of the public sector, increasing Malaysia’s competitiveness through digitalisation, and building enabling digital infrastructure are the first three thrusts of the Malaysian Digital Blueprint (MyDigital), it is time to rethink the fundamental role that digital talents play in achieving them. To build agile and competent digital talent, to create an inclusive digital society, and to build a trusted and ethical digital environment (the last three thrusts) are equally; if not more, vital. The way forward is to cultivate indigenous talents to build apps, programs and digital environments by Malaysians, for Malaysians. The digitalisation blueprints and budgets available are all well and good, but as long as digital human capital is an afterthought, digital skills will not reach the average farmer in Pahang, fisherfolk in Terengganu, or dweller of the Project Perumahan Rakyat that dot the Klang Valley. It will be the sole domain of the middle class child whose parents can afford to send him or her to programming and robotics classes, and/ or whose school can afford extra curricular activities in that area. The silver lining of the pandemic is that the digital divides that exist amongst students, and even amongst teachers as well as parents are no longer theoretical, but are evident for all to see. The digital disenfranchisement of the lower income classes must be contained. It is time for digital skills to become universal.

---