The Malaysian Insight

A MAJORITY of parents polled by the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) special review committee said they do not have confidence in government schools and send them to vernacular schools.

However, some parents who send their children to vernacular schools also oppose recognition of the UEC.

This is what the UEC task force committee told members of parliament at a meeting yesterday.

The committee was at the house yesterday to collect feedback from lawmakers.

The three-man panel, appointed by the Education Ministry on October 29 last year, has to date engaged with 56 individuals and entities, including associations, political parties, scholars and parents for their opinions on the issue.

The task force is headed by Eddin Khoo, and its other two members are Dong Zong deputy president Tan Yew Sing, who also heads the Malaysia-China Chamber of Commerce, and Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia president Mohamad Raimi Abdul Rahim.

UEC is a standardised test for independent Chinese secondary schools organised by the United Chinese School Committees’ Association of Malaysia since 1975.

The exam was launched after the Chinese schools refused to use English as the medium of instruction and join the national education system at the end of the 1960s. At the time, there were 62 such schools nationwide, with a third of them in Sabah and Sarawak.

Yesterday, Khoo told MPs the university quotas have remained unchanged for the past 20 years, even though the number of tertiary students has increased.

Local universities are allowing foreign students to enrol but not accepting local students with UEC qualifications, Khoo said.

“Some Malaysians cannot enter public universities because of the quota system, but these universities are, at the same time, accepting foreign students.

“In the UK, only foreign students who pass their exams are allowed to enter their universities. Perhaps Malaysia can consider doing so as well to retain talent from independent Chinese schools?

“Every year, there are 12,000 students taking the UEC in independent Chinese schools, and 75% of them will further their studies. Out of them, another 40% will study abroad. The number isn’t huge, so it should not be a problem to accept them into local universities, and it shouldn’t affect the education system,” Khoo said.

It is understood that Khoo’s committee found that even though renowned universities abroad accept the UEC as a qualification, the fields of study the student may take are limited.

For example, the National University of Singapore recognises the UEC, but students with the certificate cannot enrol into medical programmes.

However, UK’s Cambridge University also recognises the UEC and allows such students to enrol in medical programmes but not in history. – October 17, 2019.