PETALING JAYA: Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said a total review of the Public Service Department (PSD) scholarship policy will be carried out next year.
The Prime Minister said, the review would include whether to reserve scholarship offers for top scorers at university-entry level and providing small bursaries for SPM-level students for them to undertake pre-university courses such as STPM, matriculation or A-levels.
He said, the on-going policy should be reviewed because the government also considered that giving scholarship at the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) level was not a good idea because it was equivalent to the O-level.
“Giving scholarships at the SPM level is not a good idea. Even if students do well in their O-levels, it doesn’t mean they will do well in their A-levels.
“So there will be a total review of our policy next year,” he said when responding to a caller during an interview over Radio One FM at Seri Pentas here, today.
The caller wanted to know about the frequent complaints made by the MCA regarding the matter and how exactly the PSD had allocated the scholarship.
The one-hour programme, hosted by Jack Yap Chaun Ming, Nicholas Ong Sea Wei and Jane Ng Meng Hui, was also aired live on NTV7.
Najib said, the key was to give scholarships to those able to achieve very good results and places at top universities.
The Prime Minister said, the government also did not want to send all the smart students abroad because local universities also required them to maintain a good standing in the world.
“We always complain that our universities are not ranked highly in terms of world ranking but at the same time we assist abroad, it is a contradiction in terms of what we want to achieve, so this element needs to be taken on board as we work out a new policy.
“However, the scholarship will be reserved if you are able to get a very good result as well as a place at top universities which will be identified later,” he said.
In his response to the caller in terms of the scholarships allocated, Najib said the government had announced that those students who achieved 8A+ in all subjects would be given PSD scholarships, but had never promised that every one of them would get overseas scholarships.
Najib said, the government had tried as far as possible to be fair, and students did not have to worry because they still had access to scholarships offered by the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) programme.
“So those who felt that somehow they had been left out, there will be a second round and the 1MDB will pick up these students, send them either to public or private universities here like Monash or Nottingham universities,” he said.
Earlier this month, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz was quoted as saying that the 1MDB would be offering 500 scholarships to SPM students who obtained 8A + to study in private and public universities this year. – Bernama