CANADA HOPES TO LURE MORE SABAH STUDENTS

KOTA KINABALU (Malaysia), Jan 27 (Bernama) -- After about 20 years, the Canadian Education Fair has returned to Sabah, east Malaysia state, to lure local students to pursue tertiary studies in the country.

Canadian High Commissioner to Malaysia David Collins said that during
the 1960s
and 1970s, many students from Sabah chose to pursue higher education in Canada.

Since then, however, he said the number of students from East Malaysia had
declined.

"We enrol about 1,000 students from Malaysia to Canada annually, and less
than 20 per cent (of that figure) are from East Malaysia.

"We get people telling us that our universities (representatives) do not
come
here anymore to get students to go there...and so, we organised this education
fair to reconnect with the Sabah people," he told reporters after the opening of
the fair here Tuesday.

The fair was officiated by state tourism, culture and environment minister
Datuk Masidi Manjun, who is also state education exco.



Meanwhile, Masidi hoped more countries would hold education fairs in the
state to enable him to estabilish a rapport with the universities and education
institutions abroad.

"If possible, I would like to have a complete list of all the education
facilities in countries which are popular among the Sabah people.

"This will enable me to give counsel to all the parents who want to send
their children overseas," he said.

The day-long fair began today, with the involvement of 16 universities. The
fair will also be held in Kuching on Thursday.

-- BERNAMA