Graduates from university named after Tun Razak unemployable, qualification not recognised
Masing (left) giving words of encouragement to the unemployed graduates at his residence yesterday. — Photo by Peter Sibon
KUCHING: Graduates from Universiti Tun Abdul Razak (UNIRAZAK) with bachelor degree in teaching are left in a fix as their qualification is not recognised by the government.
At least 39 of those who graduated with bachelor in teaching from the institution in December 2013 are still jobless.
After spending nearly half a million ringgit in three years the graduates cannot get into the teaching profession because their degrees are not recognised by the Ministry of Education.
Senior Minister and Minister for Land Development Tan Sri Dr James Masing who met some of the jobless graduates at his residence yesterday, was upset over the situation.
He was puzzled that degrees granted by UNIRAZAK, which was named after the father of the current Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak were worthless.
“If the UNIRAZAK graduates are deemed not qualified as their degrees are not recognised why allow the university to operate?
“The authorities might as well close it down so that people would not waste their time and money pursuing worthless qualifications,” he said.
He said what saddened him was most if not all of the unemployed UNIRAZAK trained teachers were from poor families and had to get study loans to pursue their studies.
Masing added it was very unfair that while many Sarawak graduates were still left unemployed hundreds or maybe thousands of West Malaysian graduates were posted to the state.
He said this was happening in almost all government agencies but the worst was in the Education Department to the extent that graduates in Islamic teaching were sent to teach in schools in non-Muslim areas.
“The state has been turned into a dumping ground for West Malaysian graduates and we do not want this to happen,” he stressed.
Masing called on the Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to seriously look into this matter and be fair to Sarawakians.
“Stop posting West Malaysian teachers to Sarawak because we have people without employment who can also do the same job just as well if not better than teachers from Peninsular Malaysia since they understand the local situation well,” he said.
Meanwhile, the spokespersons for the group of graduates, Sterry Nyampah and Vanella Michael said they were very disappointed that their degrees were not recognised by the government.
They said they were willing to be posted anywhere, including in the rural areas throughout the country if they were employed as teachers.