Matriculation: Boosting overall intake isn't right solution, says MIC

MIC says the cabinet's decision to increase the overall intake of students into the pre-university matriculation programme, and thereby boost the number of non-bumiputera students, is not a solution sought by the Indian community.

According to the party's central working committee member M Veeran, the core issue which the Indian community is concerned about is the Education Ministry’s perceived racism and favouritism.

"It looks like the ministry is trying to hide its racism by increasing the overall intake of matriculation students.

"I stress that the issue here is not about the quota, but the racism practised by the ministry," Veeran told Malaysiakini.

On April 18, Senator S Ananthan had urged the Education Ministry to reveal the number of students accepted into the matriculation programme, according to race, for this year. 

In that report, Veeran alleged, 1,000 places meant for Indian students had been given to Chinese students instead, and he called on Education Minister Maszlee Malik or his deputy Teo Nie Ching to explain the matter.

Previously, there were 25,000 available places for the matriculation programme, with 90 percent allocated for bumiputera students and 10 percent for non-bumiputeras.

In terms of income, the Education Ministry had said that 60 percent of places in the matriculation programme would be reserved for the B40 income group, while the remaining 40 percent would be given to the M40 and T20 groups.

On Wednesday, Maszlee announced that the cabinet had agreed to increase the total intake of matriculation students to 40,000 from the previous 25,000.

However, the quota system allocating 90 percent of available places for bumiputera students, and 10 percent for non-bumiputera students will remain, he said.

Veeran continued to urge the government to increase its intake of Indian students, which he said was still low.

"Out of the 4,000 places (10 percent out of 40,000) allocated to the non-bumiputera, I hope that at least 2,500 will be given to the Indians."

He also called upon either Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad or the Education Ministry to publicly disclose the number of places allocated by race.  - Mkini