Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia's Youth wing (Pemuda Gerakan) today urged the government to abolish the existing dual-entrance system into local universities and allow students to get tertiary education based solely on merit.

Pemuda Gerakan's chief Mah Siew Keong, who is international trade and industry deputy minister, said the Youth wing took great concern on problems faced by students who failed to secure a place in local universities despite scoring top marks in the Sijil Tinggi Pelajaran Malaysia (STPM) examination.

"This problem which occurs yearly has cause dissatisfaction amongst parents and students, and will indirectly affect their support for the Barisan Nasional government," he warned in a speech delivered at the party's 2004 Youth and Women's National Delegates Conference held at its headquarters in Kuala Lumpur this morning.

Gerakan - a multi-racial party with a sizeable Chinese membership - was establish in 1968 and is a component party in the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition.

"In light of this, Gerakan Youth hopes the Higher Education Ministry will look into suggestions in abolishing the two-system entrance (STPM and matriculation) into local universities," he said at the division's 17th national conference.

Dual system 'unfair'

The current system, which was implemented in 2002, students can enter local universities through either one of these two examinations - matriculation or STPM. However, only 10 percent of matriculation courses are open to non-bumiputeras.

Many have decried this system as being unfair as the one-year matriculation programme is deemed to be not on par with the more trying two-year STPM examination.

Mah pleaded with the ministry to reconsider the usefulness and merits of the current system and reform it to avoid "the problem from repeating every year".

These calls were reiterated in the division's resolutions, which will be debated during the party's larger two-day conference beginning tomorrow.