Teacher training wanted

Press, 24 November 1979, Page 24

Teacher training wanted

Assistance in training teachers for vocational and technical schools will be among the more specific requests to be made by the Malaysian Minister for Education (Datuk Musa Hitam) when he meets his New Zealand counterpart (Mr Wellington) next week. Datuk Musa said in Christchurch that he would also discuss the possibility of more postions being made available for Malaysians to be trained to teach English. English was becoming more important because of the spread of education in Malaysia. Datuk Musa, who is in New Zealand to lead Malaysia’s delegation at the Commonwealth Parliamentary conference, met Malaysian students at the University of Canterbury. The main topic of con-

cern was the New Zealand Government’s proposed $l5OO a year fee for some Malaysian university students, he said. Datuk Musa said that he took the opportunity to explain the situation as he understood it, having previously met the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon). The fee applied only to private Malaysian students who started their university education next year, said Datuk Musa. The Malaysian Government had always awarded scholarships and bursaries for overseas education, and would continue to do so. he said. Datuk Musa said he had sought assurance from the New Zealand Government that after the imposition of the fees, vacancies in universities would still be available to Malaysian students on scholarships. The Malaysian Govern-

ment would not subsidise the study of private students in New Zealand, he said. However, new private students with “welfare problems” would be helped next year — if, for example, a student’s parent died suddenly, said Datuk Musa. He was considering establishing a special welfare fund for Malaysian students in New Zealand, similar to the United Kingdom. The imposition of the $l5OO a year fee was part of a ‘'trend towards educational protectionism amongst developed countries,” said Datuk Musa. The meeting had come to no definite conclusion, he said. There are now more than 2000 private Malaysian students in New New Zealand. Last year, the Malaysian education

authorities had to reject about 10,000 students who wanted to go to university, because there were not enough places for them. Although four new universities had been built since 1970, this was still not enough, Datuk Musa said. The Malaysian education authorities were now emphasising the importnace of training in technical and vocational skills. Twenty-four new vocational schools had been approved, he said. This was twice the number of existing schools of this type. It was also hoped to set up Seven new polytechnics. These institutions would relieve some of the pressure on universities, Datuk Musa said. Technical training institutions were “more functional and useful,” particularly in the context of development programmes in Malaysia.