Ministry To Revive Institute Of Teacher Education In Kelantan

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The Education Ministry has decided to revive the Institute of Teacher Education (IPG) in Kota Bharu, which was on the verge of being shut down by the previous BN administration

This was announced by its minister Maszlee Malik during his visit to the institute today
According to Maszlee, the Education Ministry took some time to come to the decision, as it had to scrutinise reports on the closure of the institute
"There were suggestions to close down this IPG and change the functions of other IPGs. "What was the problem? Actually, there are alternatives (to keep the IPGs alive), but we have to be creative
"The previous government only sought the easy way out. Luckily, they lost," he said, adding that Kelantan Pakatan Harapan backs the move to revive the Kota Bharu IPG
International standardsAs Maszlee noted, among the reasons listed in the report on the closure of the Kota Bharu IPG were low student admissions and the poor quality of the institute
"If the quality is below par, we will try to raise it. We want the Kota Bharu IPG to be of the same standard as Singaporean universities
"This can be done through the support of IPG lecturers, by changing their work culture and systems."Maszlee added that another reason the previous government insisted on closure was that classes remained empty despite the funds budgeted for these institutes
"But we can try to fill the empty classes with vocational students. They can share the education facility with the IPG," he said
Maszlee was optimistic that the Kota Bharu IPG could reach international standards and boost the state economy.
"This IPG has produced thousands of teachers and has trained at least 30 teachers from Southern Thailand
"It has the potential to train not only teachers in this country, but those from Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam."In 2016, then-prime minister Najib Abdul Razak had announced that nine of the 27 IPGs in the country would be turned into polytechnic colleges and vocational institutions. - Mkini

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