4 As but rejected by 8 unis: Singapore laughing at us, they will drain our talent away - Nga

UPDATED VIDEO INSERTED KUALA LUMPUR - MP for Taiping Nga Kor Ming wants the Cabinet to grant automatic admission to universities for all students who scored full or 4 As and to provide scholarships for the top 5% of students who sat for the STPM and matriculation examination last year.

"Yesterday, 108 students complained to MCA over this chronic problem. We need a mechanism to stop the country from suffering further brain drain crisis. It is incredible and shocking especially if you read their cases. Many burst into tears, we are talking about students with 4As and we even have one who had 4As and applied to 8 universities but not one accepted," Kor Ming, who is also a Perak DAP leader, told a press conference held at the Parliament lobby on Wednesday.

"When I referred to the statement made by the Director-General (of Education), they said the whole system is based on meritocracy. What meritocracy are you talking about? At the same time, the government spends millions setting up Talent Corp to go all over the world to pull talent back, yet we are letting all our talent go away. I believe and I guarantee you Singapore is laughing at us. They have a special talent discovering program here in Malaysia. They are waiting to take away out all our top brains and yet our government takes it so easily. So this is the time if the government is serious about transformation, let's come up with a mechanism that is fair and transparent."

Najib unable to solve the situation

Unhappy parents and sobbing students are an annual sight in Malaysia, where the education system is marked against the racial composition of the country and places in tertiary institutions of learning are based on ethnic quota rather than results.

This year, some 68,702 applied for first degree courses in the 2013/2014 academic session but only 41,573 candidates gained admission to the IPTA or tertiary institutions.

Deputy Education Minister Mary Yap has urged the 18,222 students whose applications were rejected to appeal their cases by Sunday. "You can reapply through e-Rayuan. The ministry is aware of the situation. Students have sent us e-mails, text messages and have even come to see us in person," she had said a day ago.

Meanwhile, in a bid to pre-empt criticism, Prime Minister Najib Razak has been quick to console those who failed to gain seats not to give up and that his Cabinet would meet on the matter this Friday.

"(I) will discuss at cabinet this week how to best help these students," Najib had said on Twitter.

However, his tweet attracted even more brickbats, with vocal parents and students saying that "discuss" was not good enough and that they wanted a solution that was fair and truly meritocratic.

Najib had promised to find solutions to the problem but has clearly failed. On Tuesday, 108 students had approached the MCA, the second largest party in his BN coalition, to help them. All of these students had full or 4 As and yet failed to gain admission to tertiary education.

"Simple across-the-board" solution

Kor Ming's proposal, which applies "across the board" regardless of racial background, consists of 2 main points:

1. that all students who score 4As be given automatic admission to the course that he or she wishes to study as due recognition for their studying hard and doing well

2. that the top 5% of top performers in the STPM and matriculation examinations, who are qualified to apply to enter tertiray schools, be given scholarships.

According to Kor Ming, the scholarships would not cost the government much as only 5% would work out to about "only 2,000 plus" students.

Malaysia Chronicle