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No scholarship doesn't mean no further studies

There has been much debate about the awarding of Public Service Department's scholarships to study abroad to deserving students who did well in their SPM.

Many questions have risen regarding the allegedly ambiguous criteria for selection, leaving many parents and students feeling frustrated.

Plenty of calls were made to increase the standard of the SPM examination to ensure the quality of As, thus leading to fewer candidates scoring straight As.

However every year, the number of students scoring straight As exceed the number of full scholarships available because our prime minister said that resources are finite.

In some subjects, the passing mark has been lowered substantially to enable more passes or the standard has dropped over the years, like English. Or else how do we explain the overall pathetic standard of the students' command in English.

Having said that, there have been suggestions that the list of candidates who are successful to qualify for the PSD scholarship should be published including the detailed results to enable public scrutiny.

In addition to this, the actual selection criteria and process must be disclosed and carried out in accordance with the requirements.

It is not enough to just state that a student must have a certain number of A+s, involved in extra-curricular activities, be an all rounder and have a certain personality after undergoing an interview and a special examination.

The transparency of the scholarships awarded would instill public confidence since every year the same old issue of unfair allocation of scholarships seems to crop up.

The government agencies should seriously implement giving partial overseas scholarships and/or full local scholarships to those who did not get full overseas scholarship to each and every bright student irregardless of race if ever we we want 1Malaysia to materialise.

An investment in human capital being a long-term investment would bring substantial rewards.

After the sorting out process of the appealing applicants, the deserving students , appealing over the awarding PSD full scholarships must be at least awarded partial overseas scholarship. That way, more students would be happy and there would be less of a public outcry.

It must be remembered that getting a string of As does not automatically give you the right to a government scholarship. It merely gives you a fighting chance to obtain one.

Basically, no one owes you a living. This is all good and fine provided the selection criteria is fair, transparent and can stand the test of scrutiny.

The prime minister, covering himself and the fiasco of those in charge of awarding PSD scholarships, stated that PSD did not promise overseas scholarship to all top students.

But then a lot of money is being wasted in corruption, scandals, white elephants, cost overruns, election scandals, sodomy scandals and the list goes on and on.

Well, life goes on. Those who failed to obtain any scholarship from the government must not be disheartened and realise that there are plenty of other avenues to pursue. Putting too much hope on the current administration surely give you ulcers.

One can consider obtaining study loans or financing such from Perbadanan Tabung Pendidikan Tinggi Nasional, Koperasi Jayadiri Malaysia Berhad and many other private non-political banking institutes providing education loans.

Some students are late bloomers who only do well much later in their study life thus only topping the class and winning book prizes during their tertiary education.

As such, even during the student's college or university studies, there are plenty of opportunities to still obtain scholarships or have their study loans converted to scholarships.

I was one such case where I was an average student only to excel and twice obtained book prizes in the second and final year of my college studies.

The government turned its back on me when I needed help the most.

I could just rot away in self pity or rise up from the ashes like a phoenix. I choose the latter and the rest is history.

Moving on, since it is always expensive to study abroad, the next best alternative is to study in local private colleges and universities.

Their local private qualifications are recognisable and comparable with overseas degrees.

In fact, most local institutions include practical training in their syllabus via tie-ups with reputable companies that cater for such training, thus making the course of studies well-rounded.

Upon graduation, these graduates are more likely to adapt to the local working environment easily.

Another alternative to be considered is doing twinning courses in which many local private institutes have overseas collaborative universities where half of your studies are done locally and only the final year is done overseas.

This would be less of a financial strain doing the whole study years overseas. These students upon completion of the twinning programmes are awarded the same qualification as those who do the courses full time in the target overseas university itself.

There are also many professional courses and external degrees that can be done locally and the qualifications are recognised worldwide.

Finally, those who really cannot further their studies full time due to severe financial constraints could opt for apprenticeship where one could work with the company which sponsors the employees' studies.

I, too, got additional qualifications due to the company policy encouraging the employees to further their studies with paid study leave, subsidised tuition fees and examination fees.

It may be a little harder than full time studies but in most professional courses, some work experience enables a better understanding of the subjects taken.

In fact, the understanding of theoretical applications is much easier after some practical experience.

The advantage of professional courses is mainly the flexibility that allows a working student to decide on the pace to complete the whole course since the the course is divided into distinct modules of a few subjects at a time.

So once a module is completed, one can decide to work full time for a period of time before embarking into the next module. Remember that it is the pace that matters and not the race.

At the end of the day, every student must work hard, smart and have a never give up attitude to excel in studies.

Studying continues your whole life in the ever changing technological advances and fluid business, political, cultural and methodology environment where learning never stops.

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