M'SIAN GOVT WILL BRING IN ABOUT 300 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS NEXT YEAR

MELAKA (Malaysia), May 7 (Bernama) -- Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin
said the government will bring in about 300 teachers from the United States (US)
to guide students in the English language beginning next year.

Muhyiddin, who is also the Education Minister, said the English language
experts would be assigned to schools categorised in Bands 6 and 7.

"The programme will be implemented in 2012 involving almost RM18 million
(US$6 million) in terms of cost," he said in his speech at the launch of the
Melaka Education Fair 2011, here Friday.

The programme, he said, was a follow-up to the meeting between US President
Barack Obama and Asean leaders who attended the United Nations General Assembly
in New York in September last year.

At the meeting, Prime Minister Najib Razak suggested that the programme
known as the American Peace Corps, which was very popular in the 1960s, be
implemented.

The programme had three objectives namely to provide technical assistance,
to assist people outside the US to understand the American culture, and to
assist the Americans to understand the culture of other nations.

Meanwhile, Muhyiddin said the ministry was considering the possibility of
having extra classes for English language after school hours to strengthen the
students' command of the language.