MALAYSIA'S US$5 MILLION GRANT TO HELP COUNTRIES IN TEACHER TRAINING

From Caroline Jackson

PARIS, April 7 (Bernama) -- Malaysia will provide teacher training facility
through a US$5 million grant for Unesco member countries lagging behind in
educational development, said Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

Muhyiddin, who is also Education Minister, said it was infortunate that many
of the countries would not be able to meet Unesco's Education For All (EFA)
target by 2015 due to limited economic resources and education infrastructure.

"Malaysia is, however, fortunate to have the facilities and is prepared to
share its experience and expertise with countries that require assistance in
teacher training," he told Malaysian journalists, here, Tuesday.

Muhyiddin who is attending the 184th session of the Unesco (United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) executive board which began
at its headquarters here today, said the grant offer would be discussed in
detail with Unesco director-general Irina Bokova at their meeting Wednesday.

The offer was made as a follow-up to Prime Minister Najib Tun
Razak's attendance at the 35th Unesco General Assembly in Paris on Oct 6 last
year where he announced Malaysia's contribution to the effort.

The programme under the fund would be implemented through discussions with
officials from the Unesco regional offices in Bangkok and Jakarta, its priority
Africa offices and the Malaysian National Commission for Unesco at the Education
Ministry.

Under the initiative, Malaysia will provide the teacher training facility at
the pre-service, in-service, and school administration and management levels,
with about 300 places offered each year at all levels.

Muhyiddin is confident that Malaysia will be able to achieve the EFA target
in five years' time as it was not facing the kind of problems plaguing many of
the developing countries.

He said the Malaysian government's allocations for education were always
huge, almost 25 of the national budget each year.

-- BERNAMA