DAP Socialist Youth (Dapsy) today submitted a six-point proposal to the Education Ministry o­n reforming the university entrance examination system in order to create a "genuine" meritocracy system.

A six-member delegation led by its secretary Loke Siew Fook submitted a copy of the proposal to the ministry's higher education department office in Kuala Lumpur.

Copies were also submitted to the Johor, Perak and Penang state education departments by other Dapsy leaders.

Topping the list, was the movement's stand to abolish the different examination systems and to replace them with a common university entrance examination.

"Selection of students to public universities based o­n different examination systems is unfair and will cause greater problems of racial polarisation in campuses," said Loke at a press conference later.

"A common examination system can ensure justice to all students as the academic standard is the same. It will also encourage healthy competitions as their selection is based o­n their grades achieved in that examination," he added.

This is the second year since the government implemented a meritocracy-based system for intake into public universities. Previously, intake was based o­n a quota system introduced under the 1970 New Economic Policy.

Flawed system

Dapsy 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 Basis Sciences).

Meanwhile, Loke said the government should acknowledge the different socio-economic groups in Malaysia to ensure equal opportunity.

He suggested an 8:2 formula, which means 80 percent of students are awarded places based o­n merit and 20 percent reserved for those who need assistance.

However, he added that for the latter the "criteria must be fixed fairly and wisely".

Apart from this, the movement urged the ministry to inform all applicants o­n the minimum grades for all courses to enable students to know the reason if they do not get their choice of faculty or university.

Appeal mechanism

Dapsy also voiced concern o­n the mechanism for students to appeal and stressed that all places in universities should be open to all Malaysians.

Last week, the movement claimed that the ministry was not providing the true figures o­n the intake of bumiputera students for this year.

It said 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 their intake for this year.

Dapsy's proposal was received by an official from department director Prof Dr Hassan Said's office as the others were said to be in a meeting.

When approached, an aide to the director said Hassan was currently attending a conference in Norway and will o­nly be back o­n June 5.