The Education Ministry is in the process of scrutinising various proposals on improvements to the matriculation system, including one to merge the syllabus for STPM and the pre-university course by next year.

Its minister Maszlee Malik, in a Facebook post, said the merger proposal was one out five presented by DAP Youth chief Howard Lee during their meeting several weeks ago.

"I am definitely open to receiving any relevant suggestions to improve the overall quality and Malaysia's education system as a whole.

"In fact, each suggestion submitted by Howard is being further scrutinised by the ministry," said Maszlee.

Of the five suggestions, Maszlee said the ministry is looking at a possible implementation of the syllabus merger, measures to address inequalities in the matriculation entrance admission and a grading review to raise points for extra-curricular activities under matriculation to be at par with STPM.

Beyond that, Maszlee said the ministry is also looking into the finer details of two other suggestions brought by the Pasir Pinji assemblyperson.

He said Lee had suggested that the government open up an existing 15,000 spots for foundation programmes at public universities as part of the matriculation programme.

The government was also urged to consider setting a minimum CGPA for STPM students to automatically qualify for further their studies at public universities or to open up an additional 2,000 spots for the top 2,000 students based on their CGPA scores.

"Views with concrete ideas will certainly encourage more productive discussions in this country and efforts, as well as rational thinking as shown by Howard, will certainly assist the ministry in giving our best for all Malaysians," Maszlee added.

On Wednesday, Lee reminded Maszlee of the five solutions discussed during their meeting, following the Simpang Renggam MP's controversial remark linking the matriculation intake quota to the Chinese language requirement for some jobs.

Lee also urged Maszlee to retract his controversial remarks and instead focus on implementing solutions to provide a more equal opportunity for students.

Maszlee had defended the matriculation system during a talk at Universiti Sains Malaysia, arguing that providing equal opportunities to all races should not only be looked at from the perspective of education but also employment.

His statement triggered an outcry from some fellow Harapan leaders, including DAP's Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy, who likened him to Umno leaders.