PM: Govt balancing meritocracy with social justice
By Mazwin Nik Anis, The Star
The Government will strike a balance between meritocracy and social justice when rewarding students for outstanding academic achievements, Datuk Seri Najib Razak said.
The Prime Minister said that while rewarding students based on meritocracy was important, it was also imperative not to sideline others who came from low-income families and still achieved fairly good results despite not having the advantage of studying in a dynamic or conducive environment.
“We will continue to recognise those who are outstanding and excellent. However, while we aim for excellence, we need to find a good balance between meritocracy and social justice.
“We need to give opportunity to students from rural areas or from low and middle income families the same opportunity when their results are fairly good,” he said when presenting education grants and financial assistance from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) to 330 students who excelled in their STPM and SPM examinations last year.
The Prime Minister said it was important to uphold social justice as students who did not study in a dynamic surrounding – be it due to family background or where they reside – but yet managed to achieve good results could have done better if “the situation or environment was different”.
“We need to give the same opportunity to a student from Kampung Bantal in Ulu Tembeling (Pahang) who obtained fairly good results as is given to a student whose results are better and lives in Kuala Lumpur.
“The Government pledges to give opportunity as fair and as just as possible, transcending ethnicity.
“I am pleased with this initiative by 1MDB. This is not cost incurred but an investment that we make for our future,” he said, adding that the students who had received the grant should serve the country once they graduated.
1MDB is allocating RM16mil for this programme where financial assistance worth between RM7,500 and RM15,000 annually is awarded to 300 students based on their SPM results.
Thirty students who obtain good STPM results are offered 1MDB academic grants worth between RM15,000 and RM20,000 a year.
