UNDERGOING EXPANSION: Muhyiddin (left) posing with Asean ministers at the Informal Asean Education Ministers Meeting in Bali yesterday. — Bernama photo
DENPASAR: Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the Asean Credit Transfer System is being expanded to include more universities, students and programmes, as part of the efforts to improve education quality through regional cooperation.
He said the student mobility programme with the credit transfer system implemented among three countries namely Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand since 2010 for example, represented one of the initiatives under the ‘permeable framework’ for the internationalisation of higher education.
“Currently, we are in the process of expanding the number of participating universities, students and also programmes of each country.
“I strongly believe that the harmonisation of the quality of higher education within Asean will expedite the maturity of this programme,” he said when speaking at the Informal Asean Education Ministers Meeting here yesterday.
The meeting was chaired by Indonesia’s National Education Minister Mohammad Nuh.
Participating in the session on the Asean Ministerial Policy Discussion, Muhyiddin, who is also Malaysia’s Education Minister, said that quality assurance bodies and representatives from Asean countries had already initiated the Asean Quality Assurance Network (AQAN), currently chaired by the Malaysian Qualification Agency (MQA), with a view to harmonise higher education among Asean countries.
The Deputy Prime Minister also told that session that Malaysia was willing to share its experience and expertise with Asean member countries in the area of quality education improvement in schools, especially in rural and remote areas.
Malaysia believed that the provision of quality education must benefit all schools and as such, a School Improvement Programme was launched last year as a comprehensive effort to challenge, motivate and support all public schools to improve student outcome, he said.
“Under this programme, School Improvement Partners and School Improvement Specialist Coaches are dispatched to underperforming schools to help improve the schools outcome.I must say that we have achieved considerable progress in this area,” he said.
In the pursuit of education excellence in Malaysia, the Deputy Prime Minister said a number of key initiatives had been rolled out under the education ministry as part of the Government Transformation Program (GTP), where education had been identified as a National Key Result Area (NKRA).
“Greater emphasis has been placed on providing wider access to basic education and enhancing the quality of education. In this regard our focus is to raise educational standards and outcomes through several critical levers namely: expanding provision of pre-school education, especially for those in rural areas, ensuring basic literacy and numeracy skills, recognising teacher contributions, rewarding top performing schools and supporting underperforming schools,” he said.
On the tertiary front, the Malaysian Qualification Agency, Muhyiddin said, ensured that programmes offered by institutions in Malaysia were accredited and aligned with standards set by the relevant agencies, professional bodies as well as industry.
“Malaysia will not rest on its laurels. The journey towards being at the leading edge of the education space has begun,” he said.
Muhyiddin said he was glad that with the commitment and support shown by all countries at the regional level in working together towards achieving ‘education for all’ goals and to ensure that all children, especially those with disabilities, received access to quality education. — Bernama