Datuk Felician Teo
SIBU (March 3): The Sarawak government should help the push for Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) recognition by the federal government and not leave it to United Chinese School Committees Association (Dong Zong) and other independent Chinese school boards, said educationist Datuk Felician Teo.
He believes any effort from the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) state government to push for UEC recognition will augur well for the coalition to win more seats in urban areas in the next state election.
“With their substantial clout under the current unity government, the Sarawak government should help push for UEC recognition and not leave it to Dong Zong and other independent Chinese school boards.
“This will augur well for GPS come next state election – to win more seats in urban areas,” Teo told The Borneo Post today.
He was asked to comment on the Education Ministry’s plan to not recognise the UEC as said by its minister, Fadhlina Sidek, in a report by FMT.
In a brief written parliamentary reply on March 1, Fadhlina was quoted as saying the stand was based on the National Education Policy, and the Education Act 1996.
It was made known that in July last year, Fadhlina’s predecessor, Radzi Jidin, had also said the ministry did not plan to recognise the school-leaving examination for Chinese-medium high schools.
Furthermore, it was reported that Pakatan Harapan 15th general election manifesto had pledged to recognise UEC as a qualification for entering local institutions of higher education.
According to the same news portal, the coalition promised to make public higher education institutions recognise the UEC, on the condition that applicants had at least a credit for the Bahasa Melayu paper in their SPM examination.
Teo pointed out that the UEC is a recognised qualification to enter private tertiary institutions in Malaysia and overseas but with the additional English language requirement for some foreign universities.
“Since it is universally accepted, there should be no reason why the government cannot grant recognition for admission to local universities.
“Where some universities overseas emphasise English language proficiency as a requirement, local universities may accept students on the condition that a certain level of BM (Bahasa Melayu) proficiency is shown,” he said.