LETTER | A lack of foresight and sympathy by Majlis Peperiksaan Malaysia (MPM) has left students in limbo. The Malaysian University English Test, MUET by MPM is a requirement for students seeking admission to public universities. 

While applauding the efforts of MPM in recent years to set up more sessions of MUET on Demand which differ from the original MUET in that results are released within three weeks rather than three months, MPM has been slow and ineffective in tackling the unique situation brought about by the pandemic. 

With the end of MCO not coming anytime soon, MPM has released on its official Facebook page on June 27 that the original MUET on Demand session scheduled respectively on June 20 and July 3 will be postponed to Sept 25.

According to UPUOnline, a portal for local students to apply to public universities, students are given the last chance to update any results and documents from Aug 9 to 12. Students who are slotted to take their MUET test on June 20 and July 3 are supposed to receive their results in time to upload their documents, but the recent turn of events has left them in limbo, through no fault of their own. 

If they are not able to submit their documents in time, they will not be considered for admission as they are deemed to not have fulfilled the admission requirements.

In this special time when the government and the people should work together to enable the continuing of education, MPM and the Ministry of Higher Education seemed to be rather unsympathetic to the plight of many students. We know most institutions of higher learning in the United States and worldwide have waived the requirement to take their entrance exam, the SAT, and any sort of English proficiency test in light that it may be inaccessible to many students. 

MPM and MOHE on the other hand, have been less than helpful in this manner, postponing many sessions of MUET without thought of the consequences and without giving any solution to the students. This leaves a large minority of students taking STPM or equivalent in a predicament. 

On the other hand, matriculation students are more fortunate in this regard, with matriculation having their own MUET session so they would not be in the same plight.

On the same matter, some of my friends and fellow bloggers have suggested to those in this quandary to forgo MUET and go on to take the IELTS, an equivalent international qualification. There are a few problems with this suggestion. 

First, the price of IELTS is a whopping RM795, a price that is not affordable for the common family. With parents already paying RM250 for MUET on Demand, the total cost borne would be RM1,045, for an English test. 

Secondly, not all public universities accept the IELTS. Universiti Malaya accepts it only as a stopgap measure, meaning that you have to sit for MUET again even if you have IELTS. Not to mention the lack of logic behind the fact that IELTS can go on yet MUET cannot, despite both requiring face-to-face sittings (currently).

We have written loads of requests to universities and the MOHE, some have been replied that they may give ‘special consideration’ for students in this predicament yet the lack of a concrete solution will still lower chances for a shot at a seat in a public university through no fault of their own. 

It’s unacceptable that the government only reacts to a specific situation when the situation has garnered a large amount of interest among the public with those issues out of the public eye falling on deaf ears. 

Whether to move MUET online immediately, admitting students first and allowing them to submit MUET later or even waive MUET for those who have achieved A for English in SPM/1119, it’s high time for the MOHE to release a concrete statement to provide relief to the anxiety of parents and students alike.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.