The cabinet will decide tomorrow whether or not the 86 students who scored 9A+ in SPM but failed to secure Public Services Department (PSD) overseas scholarships can further their studies outside the country on government sponsorship.

"Health Mi NONE nister Liow Tiong Lai, Human Resources Minister Dr S Subramaniam and I will bring up the matter and appeal to the cabinet tomorrow," said Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz (right) at a press conference in Parliament today.

If the appeal succeeds, then the government will award scholarships to the students involved, in addition to the 1,500 who have already received overseas placements.

The appeal was the outcome of a meeting of leaders of BN component parties, held prior to the press conference.

Among those who attended was Liow representing MCA; Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department P Devamany for MIC; as well as representatives of Gerakan and SPDP.

However as the matter was out of the framework of the meeting, it will  be referred to the cabinet for a decision.

Nazri also said the focus of the meeting was only to discuss scholarships already awarded.

'Bipartisan outcry'

Politicians, NGOs, frustrated students and irate parents had raised a bipartisan outcry over the failure of top flight students to obtain PSD scholarships.

They were given local placements or assigned to diploma programmes instead of matriculation courses.

Nazri, however, claimed that such mismatches do not exist and there are no problems with the PSD scholarship awards.

He reiterated his claim that the ruckus was caused by public misunderstanding of the criteria and process of awarding PSD scholarships.

The confusion arose at the Education Ministry, which is in charge of allocating places at institutions of higher learnings via the Unit Pusat Universiti (UPU).

"The PSD's role is just to provide scholarships, not to determine placements," he clarified.

And such scholarships are awarded according to the placements that the UPU makes based on its own selection process.

Nazri said the Education Ministry is the one that needs to be consulted when it comes to placements.

He said the ministry will be consulted, to see if a compromise can be found on dealing with top scorers seeking to be placed in matriculation instead of diploma courses.

The minister said high achievers who did not get overseas PSD scholarships had failed to satisfy the selection criteria, and that others who are more qualified have already filled the available spots.

To prevent future misunderstanding, he said the PSD will hold briefings and press conferences to explain its selection process and criteria.

'Failure to meet criteria'

Failure to fulfil the UPU selection criteria also accounted for some students only getting diploma placements, Nazri claimed.

He clarified that other misunderstandings, including the fact that this year's matriculation programme does not have specialisations like medical or engineering in the initial intake, all polled into general matriculation.

This accounted for some who claimed they did not get courses for which they are qualified.

Asked about MCA's recent suggestion to do away with the interview process, which makes up 5 percent of the selection criteria for PSD scholarships, Nazri said this is a matter of policy and not anything that could have been decided at the meeting.

The PSD, he insisted, did not conduct the interviews, but only acted as a secretariat for university professors who interviewed candidates and determined their suitability.

He also claimed that the meeting has laid to rest any dissent in the BN ranks.

"The matter was settled just now," he added.