PUTRAJAYA: Finland is ready to help Malaysia strengthen its education system by deploying experts from their education sector.
Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik said the commitment to help had been conveyed by Finland National Education Agency general manager Olli-Pekka Heinonen during a bilateral meeting held on Wednesday.
“In the meeting, Heinonen said if Malaysia cannot send its officers to Finland due to financial constraint, Finland is prepared to send over their people to Malaysia," Maszlee said in a statement today.
He expressed hope that the cooperation would translate into Malaysia learning from the experience and good practice of the Finnish.
This, he said, would elevate Malaysia's own standard of the education system.
Yesterday, the Education Ministry together with the International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM) organised a seminar on the 2018 Finnish Education System in Gombak.
The seminar was organised following a previous discussion held between Maszlee and Finland Ambassador to Malaysia Petri Puhakka on July 13.
Maszlee said the seminar had become a good platform for Malaysian educators to learn from Finland in line with the government’s aspiration to raise the standard of Malaysia's education system.
Starting from 2000, Maszlee said the education system in Finland had developed by leaps and bounds, which was obvious based on international assessment which qualified Finland to secure the top rank in the world’s education competitiveness.
Finland’s success story, he said, should be emulated by Malaysia as it strived to impart high quality education and ensure that the country could be among the top three in international assessments such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS).