Long wait for recognition
By Himanshu Bhatt, The Sun
THE Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) is recognised by some of the top tertiary institutions around the world. Universities and colleges in Singapore, Britain, US, Taiwan, Hongkong, China, Australia and Canada are known to accept into their programmes students who hold the certificate.
Yet, the certificate is still not recognised by public institutions in Malaysia. This is despite the fact that the UEC was developed in Malaysia and has been around since 1975.
The contention over the government’s apparent disinclination to have the UEC’s senior-middle level qualification recognised for entry into the many public tertiary institutions in the country has been one of the most prolonged bones of contention in relation to Chinese medium schools.
Developed as a standard test for Chinese Independent High School students, the UEC has been at the heart of a protracted socio-political wrangle for Chinese education to be broadly accepted in Malaysia’s mainstream public institutions.
The contention includes the government’s apparent apprehension to recognise UEC graduates for entry into the civil service based on their UEC qualification.
And as though to remind the public and to underscore how weighty this issue is, the president of MCA saw it fit to raise the matter during the party’s 62nd anniversary celebrations. Speaking during the event on Feb 27, Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek took arch-rival DAP to task for making pledges in every by-election campaign to recognise the UEC and to build more Chinese independent schools.
Chua challenged the Pakatan Rakyat-led states to take the lead to recognise UEC by hiring UEC holders as civil servants in agencies under state government control. “They (DAP leaders) keep saying they want to recognise UEC, and if they want to show a good example, these state governments can hire (UEC holders). Why wait for the federal government’s recognition of the certificate?” he was reported to have said.
Not unexpectedly, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, also the DAP secretary-general, retorted, accusing Chua of “barking up the wrong tree”. He asked Chua to convince the Barisan Nasional federal government to recognise the UEC.
Lim reasoned that the Penang government is unable to accept eligible UEC holders, as entry into government service is bound by rules set by the federal Public Services Commission. He stressed, however, that Pakatan supported the recognition of the UEC.
While the altercation between the two sides is likely to continue with no apparent resolution in sight from the federal authorities, the standard of the UEC it seems remains undiminished. And this is, ironically enough, in the eyes of governments beside our own.
Singapore, for example, is said to be keenly waiting in the wings every time the UEC results are out, attracting first-rate students to move across the causeway with scholarships and bursaries, to eventually help beef up the island-state’s own critical human resource supply.
As such precious talent is sapped away from Malaysia, the quest to have them stay on in the country by, among other things, having the UEC recognised here still shows no sign of abating.
The United Chinese School Committees Association, known by its Chinese name Dong Zong , recently asserted in the vernacular Chinese media that the ultimate goal of the Chinese community is for students to be accepted into Malaysian public universities on the basis of their UEC results.
And the association wants the federal government to recognise UEC holders without any conditions.
Perhaps one of the biggest ironies in this matter is that foreign students from high schools in other countries are being admitted by Malaysian public universities without them needing to fulfil the extra conditions required of our UEC students.
And so the contentious issue may just serve as one of the country’s major test-beds and indicators of how far the government is able and willing to protect and even rejuvenate Malaysia’s economy and society, on the intrinsic basis of a merit or qualification.
