NEW YORK: The first batch of 30 volunteer English teachers from the United States is expected to arrive in Malaysia by September, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said.
The Prime Minister said the teachers, who are under the Peace Corps-style project, were being sent to Malaysia under the Fulbright Programme as agreed between him and US President Barack Obama when they met during the UN General Assembly here last September.
Najib said US Ambassador to Malaysia Paul W. Jones met him recently and informed him that the 30 volunteers would be sent soon.
“I told him that Malaysia needs at least 100 such teachers as we want to send them to rural schools to teach English,” he told Malaysian reporters at the end of his visit here.
The Fulbright Programme is the flagship international educational exchange programme sponsored by the US government. It is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and those from other countries.
The volunteer teachers programme came about at the second Asean-US meeting last year that was attended by eight Asean heads of government, including Najib. Obama also attended.
Obama wanted a project to improve ties between his country and the South-East Asian nations.
Najib proposed the US-sponsored Peace Corps programme, which was very popular in the 1960s, to help raise proficiency in the English language among the people of Asean.
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