Since the early 1970s, the Malaysian Government introduced various initiatives to facilitate a wider adoption of ICT to boost capabilities in every field including education. The history of the Smart School Project is rooted in the two-pronged objectives of the flagship, which are:

To jumpstart the MSC Malaysia towards: Building a knowledge-based economy Contributing to the growth of the ICT industry Creating a pool of talent resulting in high-value job creation To prepare the citizens for the information age through an innovative education delivery process

The Concept Requests for Proposals (CRFP) process was used for the first time ever in the country to establish partnerships between the government of Malaysia and the private sector to help conceptualise plan and implement the Flagship Applications of the Multimedia Super Corridor. In July 1997, the Prime Minister launched the Smart School Flagship Application documents to invite proposals for solutions from the private sector within and outside the country.