EDUCATION CUTS CAN RESULT IN INCREASED POVERTY

KUALA LUMPUR, June 16 (Bernama) -- Severe cuts in government allocation to
the education sector due to an economic crisis can contribute to an increased
level of poverty in the nation if not addressed, Najib Razak said Tuesday.

The prime minister said many emerging and developing countries might find
that there was real danger that the economic crisis would even reverse their
current achievements under the Millennium Development Goals.

There were already signs of this reversal.

"Severe cuts in education will inevitably result in reduced educational
opportunity and quality.

"All of these factors if left unchecked will result in a higher level of
poverty in the future, greater level of income inequality and lower capacity for
sustainable growth," he said when opening the 17th Conference of Commonwealth
Education Ministers (17CCEM) at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre here.

Najib said the impact of economic crises on education had always been and
would continue to be intense a nd severe with increased competition for the
scant public funds available.

Experience from previous economic crises revealed the effects of the
economic downturn to be disproportionately felt most among children and young
people.

He said that with education seen as the engine of economic advancement and
social mobility, many countries had now shifted their focus to education as the
panacea for strengthening competitiveness, employment and social cohesion.

Subsequently, such scenario called for teachers to be more creative and
innovative when executing their roles and add several other dimensions to
teaching, he added.

"To survive and compete in these trying times, we must leverage our
creativity and innovativeness to provide that critical difference.

"It is no longer enough being ordinary. In a highly competitive innovation
economy, we must move beyond the ordinary and strive for excellence," he said.

Najib said Malaysia was in the midst of formulating a new economic model
which would lift Malaysia into the ranks of a high-income nation within the
decade, propelling from the current position of an upper middle-income country.

"The new economic model will shift our reliance from a manufacturing base
dependent on semi-skilled and low-cost labour to one that hinges on a modern
services sector, dependent upon skilled and highly-paid workers."

He said an Economic Advisory Council had already been formed to realise the
economic model, which would seek leverage on inputs such as creativity,
innovation, high value and entrepreneurial spirit.

Najib said he had made the successful formulation and implementation of the
new economic model the central theme of his administration.

However, he acknowledged that a major and comprehensive policy overhaul in
all fields would be required to realise the vision.

Nevertheless, it was pivotal for Malaysia's future, with its success
depending largely on an effective human capital development strategy, he added.

"Rest assured, it shall be the central policy thrust of this government to
formulate and execute all necessary strategies and policies to ensure the
success of this new economic model," he said.

When asked at a news conference on the sectors to be given focus under the
economic model, Najib said they had yet to be identified.

"That will come later, we are looking at the existing growth sectors that
can be given greater impetus. Obviously the services sector will figure very
prominently in the new economic model, as will the financial sector.

"But we are also trying to identify new growth areas that we have not
exploited, but the central strategy of the model is human capital, and that's
why we established a special committee under the Deputy Prime Minister
(Muhyiddin Yassin) himself, to coordinate the entire gamut of our involvement in
our education and skills development," he said.

In his speech, Najib also touched on the unprecedented explosion of
knowledge as one of the hallmarks of globalisation, with much of it in digitised
format.

He said the role of knowledge in all human activities was now so critical
that even the concepts of development and progress were being redefined in terms
of the capacity to generate, acquire, disseminate and utilise knowledge.

"The presence or absence of this capacity for knowledge creation is the
single defining factor that distinguishes between the rich and poor nations," he
said.

He said that to unlock the potentials of the new paradigm of knowledge, a
successful education system was needed to generate intellectual capital.

Najib said the pace of technological change required people to be
well-trained even for entry-level jobs and retrained continuously.

"In the future, jobs will require fairly sophisticated intellectual
abilities to think abstractly and analytically and to make judgments based on
those skills," Najib said.

On the conference, he said its challenge was to offer concrete and workable
proposals and programmes to upgrade the quality of the the workforce.

He suggested that the conference consider the possibility of establishing an
expert working group that can assist member countries that might encounter
challenges in achieving the MDG and Education For All goals.

Later Najib, on behalf of the Malaysian government, presented a cheque for
UK500,000 pounds sterling (RM2.8 million) to Commonwealth Secretary-General
Kamalesh Sharma, who represented the organisation.

The four-day conference themed "Education in the Commonwealth: Towards and
Beyond Global Goals and Targets" is jointly organised by the Education and
Higher Education ministries and the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Among the heads of states attending the conference are Namibian Prime
Minister Nahas Angula and Prime Minister of the Cook Islands Jim Marurai.
-- BERNAMA