(Penang, Sunday): I
will urgently contact all Cabinet Ministers tomorrow to ask them not to run away
from the injustices of this year’s unfair “meritocracy” university
selection which compares an apple with an orange and leaves out the pears, and
that they should take remedial action at the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
The Gerakan President and Primary
Industries Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Lim Keng Yaik said the STPM examination and
the matriculation classes should be merged to avoid confusion and
misunderstanding over the method of admitting students into public universities.
He said Gerakan supported meritocracy
as the basis for selecting students to the university, but meritocracy should be
based on purely examination results.
While I applaud Keng Yaik for speaking
out against the unfair “meritocracy” system which is not based on academic
performance and pure examination results, it is regrettable that he has chosen
the easy way out by not pressing for the rectification of injustices done to
students unfairly deprived of public university places this year because of an
unfair “meritocracy” system.
There are two types of injustices in
the unfair merit-based university
selection system this year. The first arises from comparing an apple with an
orange, in the unprofessional manner in matching the STPM grades with the
matriculation results when they are two completely different examination
systems.
The second injustice is that in
comparing an apple with an orange, the pears have been left out.
I have received the following email
with the heading “Comparing
an apple with an orange. Where are the pears?” from a “pear” who
complained:
“After
reading some media reports by our Education Minister, I feel totally
disappointed about the so-called ‘very fair’ university entrance selection
system.
“It
has been explained that STPM and matriculation results are calculated using a
CGPA system, that is commonly been used in college and universities. Where are
the statistics of Diploma Holders, apart from the two
mentioned exam holders? In
my case, I am a college student, a UTM diploma holder (this diploma course was
offered by my college as a UTM franchise program) who recently applied to get a
place in local universities. I think there are a lot more Diploma Holders in the
number of thousands from private and government institutions, including all
government polytechnic colleges and partially from local universities itself.
UTM is one of those.
“In
my college, about twenty of us (all Chinese UTM diploma holders from the same
course) applied but none of us manage to get a place. Some of us even scored a
3.4 to 3.75 of CGPA (full CGPA is 4)…
“This
is ridiculous. If the education ministry decided not to give priority
or even
consider Diploma Holders in the selection process …why did the ministry
offer university places to Diploma Holders in the February application? The
forms are clearly written that there were two categories of application, STPM
and Diploma / Matriculation holders. This is a bad joke letting us wait for
nothing.”
The Education Minister, Tan Sri Musa
Mohamad is scheduled to leave for a three-week overseas tour tomorrow, while
Keng Yaik is also expected to leave for a two-week trip overseas – both
missing the important Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, which should deal with the
injustices of the “meritocracy” system in comparing an apple with an orange
and in leaving out the pears.
I would urge Musa and Keng Yaik to delay their overseas trips to be able to attend the Wednesday meeting to ensure that the injustices in this year’s unfair “meritocracy” system are resolved first.
(19/5/2002)