Putrajaya: Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof commended the Putrajaya Festival of Ideas (FOI) 2025 as a timely platform to advance education for a resilient and sustainable future, noting that resilience must be built through education that empowers and adapts to change.
According to BERNAMA News Agency, Fadillah emphasized that resilience is not only about recovery but also about the capacity to anticipate, adapt, and transform in the face of crises. He highlighted that education plays a crucial role in fostering critical thinking, empathy, and innovation, which are essential for cultivating this strength.
Fadillah stated that education builds the capacity to nurture intellect and integrity, describing them as the twin pillars of enduring strength. He underscored the role of education during crises such as pandemics, conflicts, or climate disasters, where it acts as the silent first responder. In these situations, teachers serve as pillars of stability, students embody endurance, and institutions drive adaptation.
He further noted that the world is undergoing unprecedented technological transformations driven by artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and quantum innovation. These advancements are reshaping economies, redefining labor, and reimagining the learning process. In response, Malaysia is incorporating AI literacy and digital fluency throughout the education system, ensuring learners become masters of technology with a human-centered digital transition guided by ethics, equity, and empathy.
Additionally, Malaysia is reimagining education as a lifelong journey through micro-credentials, digital learning pathways, and the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Excellence Framework. The country is also repositioning TVET as a preferred pathway and a launchpad for innovation and entrepreneurship.
Fadillah called for a New Global Compact for Education to equip humanity not only to survive the future but to shape it with wisdom, empathy, and courage. This call reflects Malaysia's belief that education must transcend knowledge transfer and strengthen human character and global cooperation.
He remarked that Malaysia's journey in education reform is guided by the conviction that nation-building begins with mind-building. This journey is anchored in the Malaysia MADANI framework, which harmonizes progress with compassion, innovation with inclusion, and modernity with morality.
Fadillah also mentioned that Malaysia is positioning higher education as a bridge for peace and cooperation, fostering partnerships that promote research, student mobility, and mutual understanding between the Global North and South. He stressed that moving beyond 2030 requires nations to shift from aspiration to action, from silos to solidarity, and from access to agency. This ensures every learner becomes an architect of solutions, not just a recipient of knowledge.
He concluded by stating that education is an investment in human character, urging governments, institutions, and youth to collaborate in shaping a world where education itself becomes the solution to crises.