Cabinet to hear cases of 800 top scorers who didn’t get scholarships
By Foong Pek Yee and Ang Cheng Yee, The Star
More than 800 straight-A students will have their appeals for Public Services Department (PSD) scholarships taken up to the Cabinet for discussion.
Deputy Education Minister Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong said the group, comprising 280 who scored straight 1As, had submitted their appeals to the MCA.
“I have just briefed the party president (Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat) on the matter and the four MCA ministers will bring it to the Cabinet,” he said here yesterday.
Dr Wee said the situation this year had shocked even him – although the MCA Youth chief and party national education bureau chairman had been handling education and scholarship issues since 2001.
He cited the case of a student with 6A1 and 4A2 who obtained a scholarship to study engineering. On the other hand, there were complaints from students with 13A1s and 14A1s that they were given places to do matriculation instead of being awarded with scholarships.
He stressed that such alternatives should be made known earlier, not just dished out to the students.
Dr Wee added there must also be a transparent system of awarding scholarships.
Asked whether publishing the names of the scholarship recipients could help address the question of fairness and transparency in selection, Dr Wee said he hoped this would be done by the PSD not too long from now.
The Cabinet had in January refined the distribution of scholarship: 20% solely on merit, 10% for the underprivileged, 10% for those from Sabah and Sarawak and the remaining based on ethnic quota, co-curriculum, results and socio-economic background.
Meanwhile students, parents and teachers who contacted The Star said they were shocked by the “consolation prize” (getting a place to do matriculation instead of a scholarship to study overseas) given to many of those with 13A1s and 14A1s.
They also raised a host of other problems, including that the scholarship recipients were not told which country they would be sent to study.
Meanwhile, the DAP wants the Government to show the selection criteria for the PSD scholarships and explain why there was a shift in implementation.
DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz had reiterated in Parliament that 55% of the scholarships would be given to bumiputras while the rest was reserved for non-Malays.
“All of a sudden, they just changed the selection criteria. We want to know how many percent of the scholarships are given to bumiputras and non-bumiputras,” the Ipoh Timur MP told a press conference here yesterday.
Lim, three other DAP MPs and three state assemblymen had met with PSD director-general Tan Sri Dr Ismail Adam to discuss the matter.
