Putrajaya to study racial quota in matriculation intake

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the government will study the quota system used for pre-university matriculation programmes.

"We will study the problem," he said when met in Putrajaya this morning.

Mahathir was asked about a DAP Youth leader proposing that the racial quota system for the programme be abolished.

Previously, Education Minister Maszlee Malik was reported as saying that the policy reserving 90 percent of places for bumiputera students would remain.

However, the education minister added that the cabinet would study whether more places should be allocated for non-bumiputera.

The annual student intake for the matriculation programme is 25,000, of which 2,500 seats are allocated for non-bumiputera students.

Maszlee said in a statement last Friday that the 2,200 and 1,000 seats allocated respectively for Indian and Chinese students in the programme was a “one-off initiative”, only for last year.

It was based on current needs and involved seats allocated under the bumiputera quota that had not been filled. - Mkini