Najib: Malaysia’s investment in education without gender discrimination has yielded results

Princess Mabel of the Netherlands (left) talks with Najib as Rosmah talks with Denmark's Crown Princess Mary(right) following the opening ceremony at the Women Deliver conference in Kuala Lumpur.

 

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's investment in education, without gender discrimination, has yielded results beyond the Government's expectation, said the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

Speaking at the 3rd Global Conference on Women Deliver 2013, Najib said 65 percent of students in institutions of tertiary educations here are women.

"A girl at school in Malaysia today is more likely to go to University than her male classmates.

"Although we have the same number of girls and boys enrolled in school, higher education rates are greater for women," he said on Tuesday.

However, he agreed that enrolment was only the first step.

Indian Students To Fill 1,500 Matriculation Seats For 2013/2014 Intake

KUALA LUMPUR, May 1 (Bernama) -- MIC deputy president Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam has confirmed that a total of 1,500 matriculation seats would be filled by Indian Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) students, quashing claims the government did not fulfil its promise on the matter.

He said he had spoken to an officer from the education ministry, following publication of an article in a Tamil daily, which alleged the ministry had allocated only 500 places for Indians in its matriculation centres for the 2013/2014 intake.

Dr Subramaniam said the officer had informed him that all deserving cases would be offered a place and that the 1,500 places for Indian students would be filled by end of this month.

"More than 6,000 students have applied for the matriculation seats. The registration starts on May 19, and only after May 27, we will know how many students has registered and how many had rejected the offer," he told Bernama when contacted Wednesday.

Last February, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced that the government would offer 1,000 more places annually for Indian SPM holders to pursue matriculation courses at public institutions. Earlier, there were 559 seats for them.

 

 (Source: Bernama)

Najib plays education card to lure Chinese voters

As the Chinese turnout at Pakatan Rakyat functions continue to grow, it would appear BN chairperson Najib Abdul Razak has opted to play the education card over the past two days.

On Sunday, Najib told a rally in Selangor that his administration had approved SMJK (C) Confucian's request to relocate to Rawang.

He claimed that his government will also be funding the construction cost of the facility.

Yesterday, Najib was in Johor where he announced that his administration had approved the establishment of a second branch of another reputable institution, Foon Yew High School.

Foon Yew, a Chinese independent school, had applied to establish a branch on a plot of land it acquired in Seri Alam, Pasir Gudang.

"We give things to everyone, Malays get, Chinese get, Indians also get. This is our government, this is the BN government," he said during a BN rally at Kompleks Sentosa, Johor Bahru yesterday afternoon.

Najib said that incumbent Johor Bahru MP Shahrir Samad, who is defending his seat, had made a request for Foon Yew to be allowed to build a new campus.

New kindergarten for Sungai Choh children

GETTING A HEADSTART: Kamalanathan with pre-school children at the launch of the new kindergarten

Children in Sungai Choh, near here, will have a chance to get a sound preschool education following the opening of a kindergarten, yesterday.

Officially opened by Hulu Selangor MP, P. Kamalanathan, the kindergarten in SJKT Ladang Sungai Choh will cater for children between the ages of four to seven.

"The kindergarten will help provide the children an early start in education. The government spent RM120,000 to build the kindergarten and small playground," he said.

Under the Hulu Selangor constituency, he said there were a total of nine Tamil schools and only five had pre-schools and the government would be building another Tamil school in Serendah.

He said the tender to build the school has been closed and the Education Ministry is evaluating the tenders before giving out the contract.

During his speech at the opening of the kindergarten, Kamalanathan reminded them that Barisan Nasional keeps its promises and most of the pledges made during the by-election have been kept.

(Source: The Malay Mail)

Education should not be politicised, says Najib

TUMPAT: DATUK Seri Najib Razak reminded all parties that  education is  too important and valuable  to be politicised.

He said the Federal Government had never politicised the sector despite Kelantan being under an opposition party for more than 20 years.

"We may have differences of opinion and political squabbles but the education sector is too important, too valuable, for anybody to make it a political pawn.

"That is why I give a guarantee that the Federal Government will continue to give attention to education in the state.

"Whatever is given to other states, we will always give consideration to Kelantan," he said at the presentation of early schooling aid at SK Seri Wakaf Baharu here yesterday.

The prime minister said the Federal Government, through the national education system, wanted to produce a generation of pious and knowledgeable students.

"Transformations are not based on slogans. If the slogan is Developing With Islam but educational programmes are not held, then it will not become a reality.

Schools start handing out RM100 aid

Bonus time: (From left) SK Taman Desaminium Year Six pupils Ahmad Rezza Ahmad Rashdi, Wong Kai Jin and Navjoth Singh happily opening the envelopes with the RM100 aid at their school in Seri Kembangan.

 

SERI KEMBANGAN: Schools have started distributing the RM100 school assistance for students.

Parents were all smiles as Seri Serdang assemblyman Datuk Mohamad Satim Diman handed out the aid to the first batch of parents at SK Taman Desaminium and SMK Taman Desaminium here.

Clerk Norzita Abdul Karim said she planned to surprise her 11-year-old daughter with the money.

“It’s my daughter’s birthday today and she’s been wanting to get a new bag and a pair of shoes.

“I think it would be great if the Government continues this scheme next year as well, especially since the cost of living keeps increasing,” said the mother of three yesterday.

Anthony John, 74, who collected the aid for his granddaughter, said it would help with the children’s schooling expenses.

India - Malaysia Cooperation in the field of Education

Education is an integral part of India-Malaysia’s multi-faceted relationship. A large number of Malaysians pursue their studies in India. During 1960s and 1970s, an estimated 30,000 Malaysian students studied in Indian educational institutions. An estimated 3000 Malaysian students are currently studying in India, while about 1500 Indian students are studying in Malaysia. Over 30% of doctors in Malaysia today have been studied in India. The Manipal University alone has over 3000 alumni in Malaysia. There are indications of increasing number of Malaysian students going to India for higher and technical/professional education. Malaysians account for 10% of the total number of foreign students studying in India, and there is much scope for growth in this area.

A Memorandum of Understanding for Cooperation in the field of Higher Education was signed on 20 January 2010 during Prime Minister Dato' Seri Najib’s visit to India.

During the visit of Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh to Malaysia in October 2010, the Ministry of Higher Education of Malaysia accorded permission to the Manipal Group to set up a full-fledged university campus in Malaysia. In this regard, the Manipal Group announced an investment of US $180 million in Malaysia.

The establishment of branch campuses of Indian institutions of higher learning is gathering momentum with a view to make Malaysia as a hub for education among ASEAN countries. Under a twinning programme, Melaka-Manipal Medical College was set up in 2001 with the Manipal Academy of Higher Education as the Indian partner. Replicating the experience, Vinayaka Missions University from Salem in Tamil Nadu, established twinning arrangements with Penang International Dental College (PIDC) in 2005. The Vinakaya Missions University has recently announced further investments in establishing educational institutions in Johor Bahru.

Many other Malaysian educational institutions have also entered into twinning arrangements with Indian educational institutions e.g. University Science Malaysia (USM), Penang, has a twinning arrangement with the KLE University, Belgaum, for the MBBS degree course; and the Management Science University (MSU), Shah Alam, has a twinning arrangement with the M.S. Ramaiah Medical College, Bangalore, whereby they have set up a special International Medical School (IMS) in Bangalore specifically for their MBBS twinning course. Many other Malaysian institutions are also sending their students for short-term clinical practice training to India.

Scholarship Programme offered by the High Commission of India, Kuala Lumpur

The High Commission of India, Kuala Lumpur, administers the India Scholarship & Trust Fund (ISTF) under which financial assistance is provided to deserving Malaysian Indian students to cover part of their educational expenses. Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, during his visit to Malaysia in October 2010 announced additional funding for the ISTF so as to cater to the needs of more Malaysian Indian students. Due to the availability of larger funding, more students were selected under the ISTF  for the Academic year 2011-2012, and many of them received  higher  financial assistance than given in the previous years. The following table summarises the number of students selected, and the total amount of financial assistance disbursed, during the last four years:

Year	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12
No. of students selected	56	60	28	51
Total amount disbursed (RM)	46,500	46,500	44,000	103,000

 



Scholarship Programmes offered by the Government of India

Through the Scholarship Programme for Diaspora Children (SPDC), the Government of India has recently instituted a new scholarship programme for children of Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) and Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) to study in Higher and Technical Institutions in India. A total of 100 admission-cum-scholarships are offered annually to students from 40 countries, including Malaysia. The objective of SPDC is to make available India’s highly developed higher education system to the children of the Indian Diaspora (PIOs and NRIs) living in the 40 select countries. The amount of scholarship is 75% of the Institutional Economic Cost (IEC) up to a maximum ceiling limit of US$3,600/ per year.

A limited number of seats are also offered to Malaysian students in medical, dentistry, and engineering disciplines under the ‘Nomination under Self-financing Foreign Students (SFS)’ scheme. Since its inception, a number of Malaysian Indian students have been selected under this scheme to pursue medical, dentistry, and engineering degrees in various Government colleges in India.

In addition, the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) based in New Delhi offers scholarships for Malaysian students to study Indian dance, music, painting and sculpture, and also to pursue higher education (both Bachelors & Masters) in various fields, except medical related courses. ICCR offers 4 different kinds of scholarships for Malaysia: 1) ICCR scholarship for dance and music; 2) General Cultural Scholarship Scheme (GCSS) for UG and PG courses; 3) IOR-ARC scholarship for postgraduate studies; and 4) AYUSH Scholarship Scheme for undergraduate courses in traditional systems of Indian medicine.

Under Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Programme (ITEC), training in India is provided for Malaysian candidates in various fields such as banking, Information Communication and Technology (ICT), audit and accounts, hydrology, management, journalism, etc. The ITEC programme was started in 1964 and 47 institutions in India are empanelled under the ITEC programme, offering more than 270 training courses to 161 partner countries including Malaysia.

Under the TCS of the Colombo Plan, India sponsors training courses to Malaysia, especially for those working in the government related sectors. The TCS of Colombo Plan was started in 1950 and has over 40 empanelled institutions in India, offering over 200 training courses to the member countries of the Colombo Plan, including Malaysia.

(Source: Indian High Commission Website