The Education Ministry has not been adhering to the university admission quota, an opposition member of Parliament (MP) told the Dewan Rakyat today.

Member of Parliament for Kota Melaka, Kerk Kim Hock said statistics on university admission found in the National Economic Action Council's (NEAC) reports I and II did not correspond with the 55:45 ratio for bumiputra and non-bumiputra students respectively.

"The ministry must clarify whether or not it had adhered to the quota and if it hadn't then it must explain why," said the opposition leader in his adjournment speech.

"When reports about 500 brilliant students who achieved excellent SPM results not being offered places in public universities for the 2001 and 2002 session surfaced, the ministry had promised to resolve the problem," he said.

Kerk said that in August last year, MCA Youth (university affairs bureau) submitted a memorandum querying the deputy minister of education, Hon Choon Kim, on the 500 students' dilemma.

Hon, upon receiving the memorandum, was reported to have announced that the education ministry would ensure that the university intake followed the stated ratio, Kerk added.

Kerk said statistics revealed that in 1999, the bumiputra to non-bumiputra students intake was 70:30. In 1980, the ratio was 62:38; in 1985, 63:37; in 1988, 60:40 and in 1991, 66:34.

No fraudulence

According to Kerk, on July 23, the education ministry had said in a written reply that the ratio did not take into account the intake figures of UiTM (Universiti Institut Teknologi Mara) which caters exclusively to bumiputras.

The ministry had also claimed that the ratio did not take into account places offered to students in UIAM (Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia) for Islamic and Arabic courses.

Kerk called on the government to provide detailed statistics to prove that the 55:45 ratio was maintained after taking into account the intakes of the two abovementioned universities.

In reply, Hon denied there was any fraudulence in the implementation of the quota system.

He said the two NEAC reports did not take into account intakes for UiTM, UIAM and Islamic studies in UM (Universiti Malaya) and UKM (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia).

The deputy minister asked Kerk not to bring up the issue of abolishing the quota system as that would be disastrous to the country's economic policies aimed at establishing a harmonious life for the people.

He said the ministry had also offered university places to those top achievers who had initially been rejected.

Nine places were offered in UM, 96 in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and 170 places in Kolej Tun Hussein Onn, revealed Hon.

"However, out of this number, only 56 students accepted the offer," he explained.

Merit-based

He said that the criteria for selection was based on merit (90 percent) and extra co-curricular activities (10 percent).

He said the number of applications for places have increased over the years such as 43,987 (qualified), out of which 25,714 were bumiputras and 18,273 non-bumiputras.

However, only 4,433 places were offered as the courses were competitive, he added.

"We hope there is no misunderstanding. Selection criteria is based on STPM and Matriculation studies and not SPM," he said.

"We also take into account the places and staff available and the availability of competitive courses such as engineering ones," he added.

Kerk then interjected and requested Hon to answer his question as to whether the quota system was adhered to and if not, to clarify why.

He said that Hon was evading the real issue and demanded that he provide an explanation soon, to which Hon agreed.