ASIA NEEDS GOOD EDUCATION SYSTEM TO SUSTAIN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

KUALA LUMPUR, May 19 (Bernama) -- Asian countries need to change their
education system to nurture and attract talents in order to sustain their
economic and social development.

Secretary for Education of Hong Kong, Michael Suen Ming-yeung, said
revamping the education system would ensure that the future generations would be
equipped with the expertise and skills to rise to the challenges.

He said in the last decade, Hong Kong had made various changes to its
education system in order to become a knowledge-based economy and to develop
high value-added services.

"For example, our new senior secondary school curriculum and the Hong Kong
Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) are internationally benchmarked and
recognised, and have received very encouraging response from the academic
communities in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Australia."

Suen said this at a business luncheon talk entitled "Nurturing Talents for
Asia" organised by the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute (ASLI), here,
Tuesday.

Also present was ASLI chief executive officer, Dr Micheal Yeoh.

"What Hong Kong is doing currently to its education system will also help
nurture talents for Asia and the rest of the world, as it is so common for young
people to study and work abroad nowadays," Suen said.

He said it also helped Hong Kong institutions to become world-renowned,
citing three of its universities which were ranked among the top five in the
2010 QS Asian University Rankings released last week.

"Their (Hong Kong's top three universities) world rankings are also
encouraging as they were ranked among the top 50 by the Times Higher Education
Supplement in 2009.

"Hong Kong also hosted the world's number one Executive Master of Business
Administration (EMBA) programme in 2007 and 2009," he said.

Suen said currently about 13 per cent of the students in its public-funded
programmes were from outside Hong Kong, including more than 140 from Malaysia,
while another 3,000 students came to Hong Kong each year on exchange programmes.

-- BERNAMA



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