(Petaling Jaya, Wednesday): The Director of the
Higher Education Department, Professor Dr. Hassan Said has been invited to the
DAP education forum at the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall, Kuala Lumpur tomorrow
night to explain the unfair and unprofessional flaws in the university admission
meritocracy system.
The speakers at
tomorrow’s DAP education forum, entitled “Education – English,
Universities and National Integration”, are Prof Datuk Ibrahim Bajunid,
educationist; Prof P. Ramasamy, political economist; Datuk N. Siva Subramaniam NUTP Secretary-General;
Dr. Tan Seng Giaw DAP MP for Kepong and myself.
I have today emailed an
invitaton to Prof. Hasssan Said to personally, or through a representative, to
attend the DAP public forum on education tomorrow to answer the many questions
about the transparency, fairness, professionalism and integrity of the
merit-based university selection system which, if they remain unanswered, will
be major obstacles to the national ambition to build a world-class education
system and transform the country into a regional education hub and a centre for
academic excellence.
The Prime Minister, Datuk
Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad had said that there was “no manipulation” in the
merit-based university selection system and that those who are not
satisfied could inspect the Ministry records.
The Education Minister,
Tan Sri Musa Mohamad had said that it was “certainly
a bad and wrong attitude for people to harbour suspicions against the system and
the government … without checking the facts first” and that they should
approach the ministry for clarification if they are unhappy with the meritocracy
system adopted for admissions to public universities this year.
Unfortunately, all the
responsible Education Ministry officials had made themselves completely
inaccessible not only to the public but even to Members of Parliament in the
past two weeks since the announcement of the highly-flawed meritocracy system
for university admissions.
I hope Hassan, or an
Education Ministry representative, will have the courage and the
sense of responsibility to turn up at the DAP public forum on education
tomorrow night – together with the relevant Education Ministry records -
to field l questions from the public about the highly-flawed meritocracy
university selection system.
Hassan must ensure that
the Education Ministry is represented at the DAP public forum on education
tomorrow as he should heed the words of the
Prime Minister and the Education Minister, which clearly
implied that the Education Ministry must come forward to the public
domain to respond to public queries about the meritocracy system and not go into
hiding. Furthermore, as one
of the top Education Ministry officers, he should be mindful of the Education
Ministry’s Client’s Charter pledging the Ministry to be “sensitive and
responsive to the needs and wants of its clients, namely students, teachers,
society and the nation’ – and the clearing of the people’s
queries and doubts about the flawed meritocracy system is the most
rudimentary of such client needs!
The main table of the DAP
public forum tomorrow will display an apple, an orange and a pear, which
symbolize the flaws of the meritocracy system adopted for university admissions
this year, and the focus of public queries and doubts which must be answered and
dispelled by the Education Ministry, such as:
Firstly, how can an apple
be compared with an orange – which is what the Higher Education Department had
done in its unfair and unprofessional matching of the matriculation results and
STPM grades, when they are two completely different examination systems with
different evaluation procedures.
The STPM is a well-tested, open
and standardized system with external moderation and affiliated with the
Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate based solely on the final examination,
while the American-based matriculation system is a
totally different creature altogether, with evaluations based not just on
the final examination but on attendance, assignment, presentation with lecturers
having a greater say in determining the grades in the 22 matriculation centres
and where the final examination rates only 50 to 70 per cent of the matriculation marking.
The two-year STPM examination is
acknowledged as one of the most internationally difficult examinations in
the world –regarded as harder than its equivalent, the Cambridge A levels,
which is why students from the upper-income bracket prefer to choose
the A levels instead of STPM, not only
because it is a ticket to overseas universities but also
the lack of an academic level playing field for admissions to local
universities.
I am sure students, parents, educationists
and the Malaysian public will like to hear Hassan justify his statement that the
formula used in the merit system matching
matriculation results and STPM grades gives an “advantage” to STPM holders over matriculation
results, implying that the one-year matriculation grades are higher and superior
to the two-year STPM results!
The unfair and
unprofessional formula used to match the matriculation results and STPM grades
has given meritocracy a bad name by creating the injustice of comparing an apple
with an orange. It has done more, by creating the double injustice in simply
throwing out the pear – the tens of thousands of diploma holders who were not
even considered for selection under
the merit-based system.
On 2nd May
2001, when Hassan first announced the 2001/2002 academic session university
intake, he said that out of the 30,832 successful applicants, about 20,000 were
STPM candidates, 6,000
matriculation students and the rest diploma holders. This meant that for last
year, some 4,800 diploma holders
were offered places for first-degree university courses.
The Education Ministry
has committed a grave injustice by destroying the hopes and legitimate expectations of tens of thousands of diploma holders in
refusing even to consider their applications, including those who have
scored the full CGPA mark of 4, when for years, the diploma course has
been accepted as one of the three normal avenues for a student to continue
studies for a degree in a public university.
In fact, one reason why so many students
opted for the diploma route is
because the STPM is regarded as a very difficult examination to score high
grades.
Finally, Hassan or his representative should
come to the DAP education forum tomorrow with all the racial breakdowns of the
university intake all the years since the introduction of the quota system of
55:35:10 for bumiputra, Chinese and Indian students in 1975, as from the
following figures from the first and second National Economic Consultative
Council (NECC) reports, the Chinese and Indian student quotas had never been
adhered to for the past three decades:
First
Degree Enrolment in Local Universities
Bumiputra Non-Bumiputra
Total
1980
13,610 8,334
21,944
(62%)
(38%)
(100%)
1985
23,841 13,997
37,838
(63%)
(37%)
(100%)
1988
30,085 19,705
49,790
(60.4%)
(39.6%)
(100%)
1990
35,361 18,309
53,670
(65.9%)
(34.1%)
(100%)
1999
97,836 42,084
139,920
(69.9%)
(30.1%)
(100%)
(Source:
NECC I & NECC II Reports)
The recurrent educational furores and
scandals in the country raise the fundamental question as to whether the
nation’s policy-makers and educational planners are aware that our ability to
create a world-class education system will mark the difference as to whether we
join the nations that succeed in the era of globalisation and information
technology or those whose futile efforts lie in trying to cope with the future
armed with outmoded mindsets and obsolete visions – and that the adoption of
the unfair and unprofessional
meritocracy system for university admissions
is not one that will take the country
towards global success with greater international competitiveness in the
21st century.
(22/5/2002)