Successful appeal by MCA Youth for Matriculation intake: Education Ministry must address M40’s dilemma

 
With another 16 students accepted for intake into the Matriculation programme, these appeals are yet another effort by MCA Youth which have proven to be successful.

Meanwhile, the Education Ministry must pay attention to the situation which the middle-classes (M40) are undergoing. Given the post-SPM admissions system today, it is not difficult to realise that the M40 group is oft neglected.

The household income of the M40 as defined by established standards does not necessarily reflect a fortified economic ability. It depends on the locality where the M40 reside be it in urban suburbs or rural areas, the number of dependents in a family and others. A middle-class family residing in the city with several children attending school simultaneously will definitely feel the heavy pressures of urban living.

MCA Youth hopes the government will factor the afore-mentioned situation in its consideration of accepting students who hope to enrol in the Matriculation programme. This will prevent needy M40 students from being marginalised or ignored under the pre-university admission system that takes into account ethnicity and family income.

Additionally, in the interest of transparency and as Pakatan always bandies about transparency, the Education Ministry should publicly announce the categorisation of the 40,000 Matriculation seats. How many were allotted based on ethnicity and family-based income? How many seats have already been offered and filled up? What is the number of balance seats which have yet to be filled? Are successful appeal cases enrolled into the vacant seats? These should be disclosed to the outstanding students who meet the qualifications for admission.

Last Monday, 17 June 2019, when the Ministry of Education announced the list of B40 students who have been accepted for intake into the Matriculation programme, 16 of them were outstanding students who had approached MCA Youth to assist in their appeals. Of this figure, 11 of them will pursue Science-related studies, while the rest will undertake accounting

In total, MCA Youth received 102 appeals. The 16 successful appeal cases as just announced, bring the total number of successful appeal cases to 73. The public hopes that the government will finalise the list of vacant places available and to fill them up within the shortest time to avoid wastage of resources.

Ng Sing Phing
MCA National Youth Education Consultative Committee Chairperson

-MCA online-