Nazri: No action against PSD officials over scholarships distribution
(The Star) – There will be no action taken against any Public Service Department (PSD) official over the distribution of scholarships among top scorers in SPM examinations said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz.
“This is because there is no conclusive evidence of abuse of power by these officers. The selection was conducted transparently in accordance with the Cabinet’s decision on Jan 14, 2009,” he told the Dewan Rakyat Monday.
Nazri told this to Nancy Shukri (BN-Batang Saadong) and thirteen other MPs who wanted to know why were there still problems in awarding scholarships and places in universities for top students who had scored more than 9As in the SPM examination.
Nazri told the Dewan Rakyat the Government had decided not to release the list of PSD scholars and their results to maintain confidentiality.
“It is not the government’s policy to disclose such information and releasing it would not ensure that the problems would be solved,” he said.
He noted that the Government had agreed to reduce the numbers of scholarships for overseas programme from 1,750 in 2010 to 1,500 this year.
“To get candidates with wholesome personality, the government chooses students to pursue studies overseas, not just based on their academic results, but considering also their family socio-economic background, curriculum and interviews result,” he explained.
He said the scholarship was also given based on four categories; 20% based on academic achievement, 60% based on racial composition, 10% allocated for the Bumiputera’s in Sabah and Sarawak and 10% for the socially disadvantaged.
Nazri said there was still a lot of confusion over the distribution of JPA scholarships for overseas programs although the government had repeatedly explained the criteria on how to get them.
“One major factor for students failing to get scholarships is because there is an increase in the numbers of top students while the numbers of scholarships remain limited,” he said.
According to Malaysian Examination Board, Nazri said, there were 363 students who achieved good results in the SPM examination last year and, out of the total, 282 students managed to get JPA scholarships to pursue their studies locally and overseas.
“This year, JPA will offer 1,500 scholarships to study overseas while 2,500 will get sponsorship to study locally,” he said.
He added that the government had allocated RM1.44bil to sponsor JPA students this year with RM0.36bil to be spent on students to study locally and RM1.08bil allocated to students to study abroad.
