M'sian Students Enjoy Better Educational System: DPM

KUALA LUMPUR, March 31 (Bernama) -- Malaysian students enjoy a better educational system than their counterparts in countries like the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany based on the recent Global Competitiveness Report 2011-2012 released by the World Economic Forum (WEF). Quoting the report, Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said Malaysia was ranked 14th overall in terms of the quality of the educational system, and second after Singapore among Asean countries. "This is an achievement which we can be proud of. Certainly this success is due to the effort of the government and the people in enhancing the quality of our education and human capital as well as our competitiveness. "I'm confident that with continuous effort to enhance the quality of our educational system and human capital, we will be able to further raise our competitiveness in the global index in the future," he said when closing the National Higher Education Carnival 2012 at Putra World Trade Centre, here. The report ranked Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States 17th, 20th and 26th respectively. Singapore is second overall behind Switzerland. Muhyiddin also described the higher education sector as a catalyst in creating the kind of human capital required by the country's development. "The creation of highly-skilled and knowledgeable human capital is the most important investment and a pillar to innovation and high-income economy. "Our human capital development is now focused on creating talents in line with the country's New Economic Model and Economic Transformation Programme," he said, adding that access should be widened to involve courses with high economic value such as Islamic banking, health sciences, innovation and engineering. -- BERNAMA