MELAKA: The principle of meritocracy in picking university students must be reviewed and aligned with the aspiration of eradicating poverty, restructuring society and empowering Malays and Bumiputra.
Gagasan Pendidikan Melayu Malaysia (Gagasan) president Datuk Seri Hasan Malek said the enrolment of Malay and Bumiputra students in professional fields such as medicine, engineering and law was at a worrying level.
He described it as a tragedy because the aim of empowering Malays and Bumiputera through the mastery of the professional fields would fail.
Hasan, who is also Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Minister, said this in his policy speech in conjunction with Gagasan’s fourth annual general meeting here on Friday night.
The function which was opened by Melaka Chief Minister Datuk Seri Idris Haron was also attended by Works Minister Datuk Fadillah Yusof, who is also Gagasan deputy president.
In the meantime, Hasan said Gagasan found a significant gap between the achievements of Malay and Bumiputera students and non-Bumiputera in the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia and Sijil Tinggi Pelajaran Malaysia examinations announced
recently.
He said among the causes of the problem was that schools in the interior and rural areas were still lagging behind, in terms of educational infrastructure.
Students who were taught in classrooms which were dependent only on text books could not compete with students who studied with the aid of digital technology, he added. — Bernama