PUTRAJAYA, MALAYSIA - All 88 smart schools should have a five-star rating under the Smart School Qualification Standards (SSQS) by 2009 or 2010.

Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said 58 of the schools, or 65.9%, had achieved five stars and 29 had four stars while one was ranked three stars.

All other schools should achieve a three-star rating by 2012, he told reporters after launching the Oxford Fajar Sdn Bhd jubilee publication entitled Malaysia: From Traditional to Smart Schools - The Malaysian Educational Odyssey.

Hishammuddin announced last year that the ministry was developing SSQS, a monitoring tool developed for assessing the 88 smart schools in terms of resource usage, human capital, applications and technology infrastructure.

The ranking ranges from one star (basic) to five stars (advanced plus).

He said the ministry wanted to make the 88 schools a benchmark for other schools.

"It is not just about computers or teacher training. Basic requirements such as electricity to power the computers are things which are sometimes overlooked."

It was not easy to implement a smart school policy in the country's 10,000 schools, he said, adding that it was usually the negative aspects, such as one or two failures, that were highlighted.

"So, to have a book which shows our journey of moving from traditional to smart schools puts everything in perspective," he said.

It also showed how far the country had gone in 51 years and the Government's investment in education, he added.

On the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English, Hisham-muddin said any change in the policy would not affect the present batch of students.

"As a father with children in the school system, I would not want this to affect them either," he said.

The policy of teaching Science and Mathematics in English was implemented in phases, starting with Year One, Form One and Lower Six students in 2003.

Hishammuddin had earlier announced that a decision on whether Science and Mathematics would continue to be taught in English would be made after the Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) results were released.

He said the decision would not be based on the UPSR results but the ministry needed time to seek the views of different parties.