Teachers, education cooperation, focus of Muhyiddin-Clegg talk

Cooperation in education, bilateral trade and the Syrian crisis were among issues discussed at a meeting between Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and his United Kingdom (UK) counterpart, Nick Clegg here Tuesday.

Muhyiddin said the discussion on education centred on efforts to create long term cooperation to improve the capabilities of English language teachers in Malaysia.

He said the move to bring American teachers in assisting the training of English language teachers in Malaysia as implemented before could be extended to teachers from the UK.

Speaking to Malaysian media after his meeting with Nick Clegg here, he said the discussion also touched on the needs of Malaysian students who further their studies in the UK.

"The UK is a popular destination for Malaysian students, currently there are 14,000 now. The interest is there, so we hope the tuition fees here would not be raised but we also hope more students here would study in Malaysia," he said.

The meeting with Clegg was among the programmes on the third day of a five-day visit by Muhyiddin to the UK, which started on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Muhyiddin said he also informed Clegg that a task force had held their first meeting in efforts to expand bilateral trade to eight billion pounds as decided by the two countries before this.

"Clegg would like to see us consider in detail, the areas to expand trade, whether they are in goods, services or investment in UK and in Malaysia," he said.