Let there be a single admission system for varsity intake: Dapsy

comments     Published     Updated

DAP Socialist Youth (Dapsy) will submit memorandums to the Education Ministry and state education departments this Friday calling for a single admission system to public universities.

Its secretary Loke Siew Fook ( left ) said today that the memorandums will outline the movement's proposal to reform the university entrance examination system.

He said Dapsy's executive council which met in Ipoh, Perak, last Sunday agreed that it will take a policy position to call for the abolishment of the different examination systems for admission to public universities.

"Instead we want a single admission system for all students vying for places in public universities as the first step to genuine meritocracy in our higher education system," he said in a statement.

Huge gap

Dapsy has always maintained that a common university entrance examination system should replace the controversial merit-based university entrance selection process that was introduced last year.

The movement argued that the current system is flawed because the intake is based by comparing results obtained through different examination systems - STPM, matriculation and other equivalent examinations.

STPM is a two-year course with Cambridge University Examination Board representatives as external examiners, while matriculation, almost exclusively reserved for bumiputera students, is an in-house and o­ne-year course.

Other equivalent examinations include that set by the Universiti Malaya's all-bumiputera Pusat Asasi Sains (Centre for Basic Sciences).

"The so-called meritocracy system in the admission to public universities is without merit as it provides the illusion without the substance of meritocracy," said Loke.

"A selection system which based o­n different examination systems which is not o­nly different in format but a huge gap in terms of academic standards is without merit whatsoever and unfair to the students and the country.

Best solution

He added that the introduction of a single admission system for all students is the best solution to create genuine meritocracy in the country's higher education system.

The memorandums will be simultaneously submitted to the Higher Education Department in Kuala Lumpur as well as to the state education departments in Penang, Ipoh, Malacca and Johor Bahru.

Last week, the movement claimed that the Education Ministry was not providing the true figures o­n the intake of bumiputera students into public universities for this year.

It said that the ministry failed to reveal that an additional 10,650 places in various universities were given exclusively to bumiputera students, thus increasing the percentage of bumiputera students' intake for this year.

The ministry had earlier announced that the percentage of bumiputera students had dropped although their numbers increased as more places were offered.



Malaysiakini
news and views that matter


Sign In