Scholarship rows: BN government shows its true colours
When results of university intake into public universities were announced in July this year, there was an uproar that only 19% of places were awarded to Chinese and 4% to Indian students.
The problem was compounded by the fact that many top students with perfect Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) score of 4.0 were even denied places or courses of their choice.
Students were told to submit their appeals.
MIC Deputy President Datuk S Subramaniam had then said that the Cabinet would look how to place them in private universities if their appeals are unsuccessful.
The Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib had also in a tweet pledged to discuss the matter in Cabinet on how to help the affected students.
Former Deputy Education Minister Datuk Wee Ka Siong was reported in today’s Chinese media as saying that not all students, including those with CGPA of 4.0 were successful in their appeals.
He further said that last year , the government allocated RM 49.3 million to help top scorers in similar situation to study in private universities but there will not be such allocation this year.
What Wee has announced has come as a shock to many students and parents.
This makes a mockery of the recently launched National Education Blueprint which empahsised the government’s objective of producing world class students.
What is the point of talking about producing world class schools or students if the government cannot even ensure that top scorers gain admission into local public universities?
Tuition fees are exorbitant in private universities and are beyond the means of many students. If these students could afford the high tuition fees, they would have done their pre u progarmme in private universities instead of doing STPM.
The Prime Minister needs to answer why has the Cabinet decided not to continue the past solution- to provide scholarships to the top scorers to pursue courses in private universities?
In 2011, 86 students who failed to obtain Public Service Department (PSD) overseas scholarships were given scholarships to pursue the degrees of their choice at local private universities. The decision cost the government RM 26.1 million.
Last year, more than RM49 million was allocated to sponsor about 600 top scorers who failed to get into public universities to study their choice courses in private universities.
Why has the government decided to “abandon “the best and brightest” this year? Simply because the general election is over?
On July 23, it was reported that IMDB has also decided to stop providing scholarships to Chinese independent schools after having done so for the past 3 years. Each year, 50 students were given scholarships and each successful recipient would receive RM 45,000.
Such move has been seen as the government showing its true colours after the May 5 general election, that is, it was only dishing out help to the Chinese community before the general election to obtain their political support.
The failure of the Cabinet to resolve the plight of the top scorers has further shown that the government’s decisions are dictated by political needs, rather than being driven by true and sincere commitment to help those in need.
