Msia & Spore sign G-to-G MOU on education links

[sirgalahad2010]

The Spore Straits Times (http://straitstimes.com.sg) reported today that Msian Education Minister Hishamuddin and his Spore counterpart Tharman Shanmugaratnam signed a govt-to-govt MOU in Spore yesterday to "deepen the two countries' educational links".

13 Spore secondary schools are paired with Msian schools to develop links between their students.

Quoted in the ST report as examples of this pairing were: Tengku Kursiah College ("Msia's premier girls' school") & Raffles Girls' Secondary School; St Francis Institution (Malacca) & Catholic High School; Penang Free School & Victoria School (Spore). And if I remember right, MCKK is paired with Spore's Raffles Institution.

What is more interesting is Tharman's comments on his relationship with Hishamuddin. As reported by the ST, Tharman said:

"I have known Datuk Hisham rather well for several years. Fortunately, we both happened to land in the same boat of education and I can tell you that I have no relationship with a foreign counterpart that is as close as my relationship with Datuk Hisham...We hit it off very quickly and from our very first meeting, we agreed on what needed to be done and agreed that we were going to do it...There is no other relationship like that."

Now, was Tharman indulging in diplomatic hyperbole, or is this the Hisham that we all know and love in Msia?

More to the point, I hope that this MOU will enable the Msian Education Ministry to pick up the good points of the Spore education system, especially the teaching of English, the Gifted Education Programme, it's secular nature and the need to pay teachers and school principals well.

[river]

Minister Tharman is exellent. that's it.

I hope the boleh-lah gov know the fact that many people they meet in Singapore are from Malaysia. Thanks to the NEP and system quota.

While gov drain the brain, other countries like Taiwan, Singapore are happy to welcome the student. Can you imagine Singapore Gov is giving out tuition grant and some Taiwan poly is offering free edu for these student while our own gov denied them and yet expect them to come back to serve the country under NEP.

TKK = tan ku ku (wait long long)