Education Minister Says Govt Has No Plans To Recognise UEC
The Pakatan Harapan (PH) member of parliament's (MP) reply in the Dewan Rakyat goes contrary to the coalition's GE15 election manifesto, in which it pledged to continue efforts to recognise UEC.
By Sadho Ram — 01 Mar 2023, 04:37 PM
In a parliamentary written reply yesterday, 28 February, Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek told the lower house that the government has no plans to recognise the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC)
Fadhlina was replying to Sabri Azit, who is the PAS member of parliament (MP) for Jurai.
Sabri posed his question, asking about the Ministry of Education's (MOE) latest position regarding the recognition of UEC, a standardised test for Malaysian independent Chinese secondary school students.
While UEC is recognised as a qualification for entrance into many tertiary educational institutions around the world, it's not recognised by the government of Malaysia for entry into public universities.
Fadhlina, in her brief reply, stated that the government's stance to not recognise UEC is based on the National Education Policy
"For the information of honourable members of the house, as of now, MOE has no plans to recognise UEC, which is implemented in Chinese private middle schools. This position is based on the National Education Policy and the provisions under the Education Act 1996," read the Education Minister's reply.
For the record, Pakatan Harapan's (PH) 15th General Election (GE15) manifesto pledged to recognise UEC for public university enrolment
For context, PKR, the party to which Fadhlina is a member, is one of the major component parties of the PH coalition, which now governs Putrajaya under a grand coalition named Unity Government Cabinet.
The PH GE15 manifesto stated that the coalition's efforts to recognise UEC will continue as a general requirement for Public Higher Education Institutes (IPTA) with the condition that applicants possess at least a credit in Bahasa Melayu for their Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) results.
The recognition of UEC was also part of the PH coalition's GE14 election manifesto. Similarly, it was also part of the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition's election manifesto for the 2018 General Election.
BN is now also part of the Unity Government Cabinet.
