‘TIN KOSONG’ ANWAR’S PKR NOT SHY TO BREAK KEY ‘UEC’ ELECTION PROMISE – IT TAKES DPM FADILLAH, PROUDLY FROM SARAWAK, TO STAND UP TO ‘CONFUSED’ EDUCATION MINISTER FADHLINA – ‘THERE’S STILL ROOM TO NEGOTIATE ON UEC RECOGNITION’

Business, Politics | March 4, 2023 3:21 pm by | 0 Comments

Fadillah to raise UEC issue with education minister

Deputy prime minister Fadillah Yusof says there’s still room to negotiate on getting the Unified Examination Certificate recognised by Putrajaya.

Recognising the Unified Examination Certificate was among the key pledges in Pakatan Harapan’s manifesto for GE15.

PETALING JAYA: Deputy prime minister Fadillah Yusof says he will meet with education minister Fadhlina Sidek next week to discuss the ministry’s stand on the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC).

Fadillah said the discussion was to understand why the government had decided not to recognise the school-leaving examination for Chinese schools, Berita Harian reported.

He pointed out that the previous government decided to recognise the UEC under the condition that the administrators of Chinese schools accepted the national syllabus for subjects like history.

“This means that there is still room for discussion on the UEC (recognition) issue,” said Fadillah, who is the first deputy prime minister from Sarawak, where the state government had recognised the UEC since 2014.

Earlier this week, Fadhlina was reported to have said that her ministry did not plan to recognise the UEC, adding that this stand was based on the National Education Policy, and the Education Act 1996.

Recognising the UEC was among the key pledges in Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) manifesto for the 15th general election (GE15).

The coalition promised to make public higher education institutions recognise the UEC, on the condition that applicants had at least a credit for the Bahasa Melayu paper in their SPM examination.

Yesterday, Sarawak Federation of Chinese Associations president Richard Wee criticised the federal government over the education ministry’s decision.

He also urged Putrajaya to emulate the Sarawak government.

After PH took over Putrajaya in May 2018, it formed a task force to gather views on recognising the UEC.

The task force was led by sociologist Eddin Khoo, and included then Malaysian Islamic Youth Movement (Abim) president Raimi Abdul Rahim and then Dong Zong deputy president Tan Yew Sing.

However, all efforts towards recognising the UEC ceased after the change of government in February 2020, even though the task force had completed its report.

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