By Simon Peter
KUCHING, Sept 29, 2014: Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR)
national vice head Voon Shiak Ni has slammed the Education Ministry for banning
the use of forecast results of Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) by students to apply
for pre-university programmes at private institutions of higher learning.
"The decision had frustrated tens of thousands of
parents and students who are preparing themselves to start their pre-university
programmes or "A" level overseas," she said at a press
conference today .
She said that Form Five trial public examinations have
been used as entry qualifications for the over 20 to 30 years and it did not
disrupt or bring on any difficulties to the education system as most of these
students are on their own family finances and they graduated with the required
standard of the degree they are pursuing .
She asked:"What is the rational for barring the use
of forecast results as admission for foundation courses?"
"We wish to bring to attention of the Ministry that
there is no reasonable grounds to bar students from using the forecast results
as admission to "A" levels , pre-university courses or foundations
courses.
"The official results of SPM is only released in
March and thus students will not be in time to enrol at private tertiary
institutions as foundation courses at private institutions and overseas will
start in January each year," she said.
Voon said that the
Ministry’s decision has shocked private tertiary institutions, and that
results from the forecast results are commonly used by non-Bumiputera
students for private tertiary education, and the move will put the group on par
with those who must wait for the official SPM scores when applying to public
universities.
"The reason of putting all Form 5 students at par to
wait for official results cannot reasonably be practicable as more than 50
percent of the SPM leavers are unable to get admission to local university and
those students rejected by local university will be then be year late in
seeking tertiary education at private institution .
"The mock examination is also a formal examination
and it does not fall short of its quality as an assessment on the students' academic performance . Labelling it as a
worthless paper is absurd and an insult to the very own system of the education
system which had placed importance of having the mock examination before the
official public exam .
" It has also been proven that results from SPM mock
examinations and the results of SPM official results are accurate reflection of
a students' academic performance and there has yet to be any distinctive
difference in the results of performance between the results of mock examinations
and the official SPM results .
" We believe that the Ministry should give good
justification grounds for asking all SPM students to wait for official results
when only a fraction of the SPM scorers can proceed their tertiary education in
public institution and many of them need to finance their way to private
institutions .
"A serious review should be made on the unwelcome decision of the Ministry as it has no
apparent benefits in charting the future of tens of thousands of students who
have plans to finance their own tertiary education inside or outside the
country and there is no good convincing reason for delaying these
students," Voon said.
Students would now have to wait until March to receive
their official SPM results before applying for the pre-university programmes,
which could push back their studies by a year.
For these proactive students, they are wasting time
waiting for the official results. Some colleges only have intakes for January
and September each year, which means a difference of eight months.
A question, therefore, arises what of officers the
Ministry has for banning the use of forecast results to apply for
pre-university programmes.
The ministry had had been accused of committing one
misstep after another, from abolishing the PPSMI (teaching of Maths and Science
in English) in 2009, the confusion over the School Based Assessment (SBA)
system, and the UPSR leaks that have forced Year 6 students to re-sit their
exams next month.
The Malaysian Association of Private Colleges is
reportedly appealing for the decision to be reviewed.
Opposition lawmakers also condemned the ministry’s
decision, noting that it was done without any basis.
“Ultimately, the Education Ministry’s job is to ensure
students get their education smoothly, not impose another roadblock,” said
PKR's Bayan Baru MP, Sim Tze Zin.
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