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DAPSY urges the Education Minister to make a Ministerial statement in Parliament to ensure that all post-STPM students who passed at least 3 subjects in STPM 2002 to get a place in public universityMedia Statement by Loke Siew Fook (Petaling Jaya, Tuesday): The Education Minister, Tan Sri Musa Mohamad should immediately make a Ministerial statement in Parliament within this week to ensure that all post-STPM students who passed at least 3 subjects in the STPM 2002 to get a place in a local public university. All university-bound students who are applying for admission into local public universities must submit their application by next Monday, March 17. There are a total of 47,022 students who sat for STPM in 2002 and a total 17,000 students from the matriculation centers throughout the country. In other words, the total students vying for places in local public universities for this coming intake are 64,022 students, both from STPM and matriculation. On March 3, 2003, the Education Ministry Higher Education Department director-general Dr Hassan Said has announced that there will be an increase of intake in public institution of higher learning by 11 percent this year – from 32,752 to about 36,500 with 60 percent of these places reserved for Science students while 40 percent for Arts students. Hassan further revealed that the 36,500 places available did not include Universiti Teknologi Mara, the International Islamic University, the Islamic faculties at Universiti Malaya and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, and for Islamic courses at Kolej Universiti Islam Malaysia. Therefore, the total intake of students in all public institution of higher learning for this year should be as follow:
Source: Education Ministry’s statistic, NSTP March 4, 2003 It is clear from the statistics above that there are at least 47,150 places in all public institution of higher learning for this year’s intake although 10,650 places out of it are mostly, if not 100 percent reserved for Bumiputra or Muslim students. Given the numbers released by the Education Ministry, a large portion of the STPM students shall be able to get a place in a local public university although not all students will get the courses of their choice. The numbers of STPM students who passed according to the number of subjects are as follow:
Source: Education Ministry’s statistic, NSTP March 1, 2003 There are a total of 29,162 students who sat for STPM 2002 passed at least 3 subjects from a combination of students who passed 3, 4 or 5 subjects. Going by the logic that there a total 47,150 places in public institution of higher learning for this year’s intake, even if all the 17,000 matriculation students are admitted into local public universities, there are still enough places for all the 29,162 students who passed 3 subjects or more in their STPM examination! The Education Minister must make a commitment and officially ensure that the Education Ministry will deal fairly with all application for admission into public universities this year to demonstrate a just, fair and equal opportunity to all students vying for places in public universities in the so-called meritocracy system. However, there are still many unresolved and pressing question as to how the Ministry can ensure fairness when the 2 batch of students who went through entirely different type of examinations, the STPM and matriculation are put into the same pool for selection, comparing an apple with an orange! (11/3/2003) * Loke Siew Fook, DAPSY National Secretary | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||