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DAP insists on overseas scholarships for all SPM aces

By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal
June 07, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, June 7- All SPM top scorers should get overseas Public Service Department (PSD) scholarships instead of 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) grants if Malaysia wants to retain the country’s human talent, DAP has said.

Putrajaya announced yesterday that 500 special education grants would be disbursed by 1MDB to rejected applicants to study locally. The categories (annual): Scholarships to public universities (RM7,500), scholarships for critical courses in private universities (RM15,000), and grants for non-critical courses (RM7,500). Continue reading “DAP insists on overseas scholarships for all SPM aces”

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History education in M’sia: Deep roots of contestation

By Dr Lim Teck Ghee
Monday, 06 June 2011

Most Malaysians – including members of the specially appointed government committee to review the history curriculum – may not be aware of the deep roots of the current controversy on the narrow religious and ethno-nationalistic approach that has come to dominate history education in the country. The following essay provides information on two studies that have examined the roots of the contestation on history education, especially with regard to the history curriculum developed for schools and the assigned textbooks. 1

Santhiram’s work: Textbooks that divide

The earliest academic study on the subject was undertaken by Dr R. Santhiram. The study published in 1997 is a pioneering attempt at examining the extent to which the educational system – as exemplified in the curriculum and textbooks – was reflective of a multiracial and multicultural society. 2 Focusing on selected lower secondary school textbooks and using quantitative content analysis and qualitative strategies, the paper’s general conclusion was that while some textbooks provided curriculum content appropriate for a multicultural society, others had concentrated heavily on majority race identity. 3 Continue reading “History education in M’sia: Deep roots of contestation”

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Mixed race: Where do we draw the line?

Malaysiakini Your Say | Jun 2, 11

‘We have one rule for some people, another rule for others, while Muslims seem to get the best deal as no matter what the situation, they still be bumiputera.’

Students of mixed parentage denied varsity admission

Borneo Son: Every deserving Malaysian should be given admission to university and/or scholarship regardless of ethnic/religious background if Malaysia is to become a progressive nation.
Continue reading “Mixed race: Where do we draw the line?”

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PSD scholarships: What’s Nazri trying to hide?

Malaysiakini Your Say | Jun 2, 11

‘In a truly democratic country, a responsible government would publish the list of scholarship holders alongside their results.’

86 top scorers to be placed in local private varsities

Cala: I am dumfounded by the Public Service Department and Minister in the PM’s Department Nazri Abdul Aziz’s line of action. They appear to be incapable of doing things right in the first instance. After all, they are the products of the Umno-led BN regime’s mediocrity and recklessness.
Continue reading “PSD scholarships: What’s Nazri trying to hide?”

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Using history to make us intelligent, not stupid

By AB Sulaiman | May 30, 11
Malaysiakini

Some years ago, a concerned parent and friend drew my attention to the peculiar case of the current History textbooks for Forms 4 and 5 students. He hinted that apparently they were decked with omissions, errors, half-truths, an exaggerated role of the Malay ethnic group, and minimising or omitting altogether the considerable contribution of non-Malay individuals.

The texts furthermore exaggerated the role and influence of Islam toward the development of human civilisation and the country. His daughter had found the subject unbelievable, bordering on the ridiculous, and also very boring, but had studied on because she had to.
Continue reading “Using history to make us intelligent, not stupid”

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We are in this together

Y. Khairil
The Malaysian Insider
May 31, 2011

MAY 31 — I am a not-so-young Malaysian male of the majority type. You know, the type who people always accuse of being pampered by the government, being coaxed with many affirmative-action niceties and other stuff.

I have lived here all my life and, contrary to the standard image of the constitutionally-protected people, do not have the opportunity nor the money to even step out of my state border, let alone the national border.

I went from primary to tertiary education in government institutions, since it was the only viable choice for my poor family. Until a few years ago, I worked as a lowly factory operator earning just slightly above the officially recognised poverty-level income, although you and I know that “official” things are rarely dependable and practical.

No other employers would take me for some unknown reason, despite my degrees and several language proficiencies. I think I might have been deemed too rebellious for Malay firms or the civil service, and I’m definitely not “leng zai” enough to be courted by Chinese firms. I spent four to five hours of my life daily wasting away in morning and evening rush traffic. What a great life. Continue reading “We are in this together”

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Make public PSD scholarship recipients

Tashny Sukumaran | May 28, 2011

DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang says the prime minister must restore transparency and integrity to the selection process

KUALA LUMPUR: DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang wants Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to make public the names of PSD scholarship recipients.

“Najib must restore transparency and integrity to the selection process by making public the list of scholarship recipients,” said Lim.

“It’s a crying shame that even after so long, the Public Service Department is incapable of functioning in a competent and professional manner.”

The former DAP chairman added that as the government had spent billions of ringgit on computerisation, this should be achievable.

“If it was not possible, those responsible for computerisation project should be sacked,” he said.

Lim also underlined the importance of restoring public confidence in the system by ending the double standard of having two different pre-university examinations. Continue reading “Make public PSD scholarship recipients”

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Laporan kajian tentang penyimpangan dan kelemahan buku teks sejarah

CPIASIA | 27 May 2011

Urutan Power Point di bawah telah disediakan oleh Centre of Malaysian Chinese Studies (CMCS) dan Nanyang University Alumni Association of Malaya (NYUAA, Malaya) and dibentangkan kepada awam yang menghadiri upacara pelancaran kempen A Truly Malaysian History pada Mei 15 baru-baru ini.

Laporan CMCS dan NYUAA membuat ulasan bahawa skop sempit matapelajaran Sejarah tidak berupaya memupuk generasi muda yang “berpandangan global”.
Continue reading “Laporan kajian tentang penyimpangan dan kelemahan buku teks sejarah”

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Page wants Putrajaya to make stand on English

By Clara Chooi | May 27, 2011
The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, May 27 — Pro-English language lobby group Page today pleaded with the Najib administration to stop delaying its decision on re-introducing PPSMI (Teaching of Science and Mathematics in English) as an option in schools.

Page chairman Datin Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim revealed to The Malaysian Insider today that the group had been invited for a discussion with the Education Ministry on April 29, but said the meeting was mysteriously cancelled at the last minute.
Continue reading “Page wants Putrajaya to make stand on English”

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Gov’t scholarships: Don’t be disheartened, Heama

‘Have the inner strength to carry on your struggle despite this setback. Persevere. The world out there is waiting for you to explore.’

High achiever’s PSD scholarship dreams dashed

Pemerhati: The Sun reported Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nazri Abdul Aziz as saying that of the 300 scholarships that were given based on merit, 14 percent were given to bumiputeras while 86 percent were given to the non-bumiputeras.

This indicates that if Malaysia has a meritocractic system, there would be only about 20 percent bumiputeras in the various fields that require strong academic ability.
Continue reading “Gov’t scholarships: Don’t be disheartened, Heama”

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Too many top scorers, not enough scholarships

Malaysiakini Your Say | May 27, 11

‘Perhaps the major problem is not there are too few scholarships, but too many applicants from an examination that have too many top scorers.’

High achiever’s PSD scholarship dreams dashed

Wfworker: While I sympathise with parents with ‘brilliant’ children, I like to relate two incidents regarding my friends’ children.

One parent expressed her surprise over her son’s achievement of 5As at the recent SPM examination. The reason being that he had failed in all his subjects at the school trial examination.
Continue reading “Too many top scorers, not enough scholarships”

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High achiever’s PSD scholarship dreams dashed

By S Pathmawathy | May 26, 11
Malaysiakini

Every year, we hear stories of high achievers not being able to secure government scholarships to pursue the courses of their choice despite fulfilling the necessary requirements.

Heamanthaa Padmanaban was among those who had suffered this setback to follow her ambition to study medicine abroad and also did not qualify to take up a course in biotechnology locally.
Continue reading “High achiever’s PSD scholarship dreams dashed”

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Wary of flip-flop tag, Cabinet dithers over English

By Clara Chooi
The Malaysian Insider
May 27, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, May 27 — The Najib administration has not decided on switching back to English for Science and Mathematics (PPSMI) because several Cabinet ministers feel any change would be another embarrassing flip-flop.

The Malaysian Insider understands the Cabinet has discussed the issue but ministers are still divided, leaving Datuk Seri Najib Razak to ask the Education Ministry to work out the various options.

“They don’t want to appear to flip-flop like the Abdullah government,” a government source told The Malaysian Insider recently.

Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s rule was marked by several policy U-turns that led to him being mocked by predecessor Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and other critics. Continue reading “Wary of flip-flop tag, Cabinet dithers over English”

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Abolish race quota for PSD scholarships, says ex-FT education chief

By Boo Su-Lyn | May 26, 2011
The Malaysian Insider

PETALING JAYA, May 26 — A former Federal Territory education director today pressed the Najib administration to abolish the race quota in Public Service Department (PSD) overseas scholarships.

Abas Awang, who is now the PKR education bureau chief, said the government should consider the long-term interest of Malaysia which aims to become a high-income nation by 2020.
Continue reading “Abolish race quota for PSD scholarships, says ex-FT education chief”

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Make lists of scholarship recipients public

Malaysiakini Vox Populi | May 26, 11

‘Then there will be no arguments as to the veracity of the selection process. Until that is done, there will be quarters that won’t trust nor believe PSD.’

Abolish PSD’s racial quotas, urge NGOs

WangMalaysia: More than 8,800 students getting 9A+. Malaysia has loads of talent! I remember during my time, those getting 8A1 count for less than 30 throughout the country.
Continue reading “Make lists of scholarship recipients public”

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PPSMI options

Page
The Malaysian Insider
May 24, 2011

MAY 24 — “We will consider the Prime Minister’s views and what can be done to fulfil the wish of certain groups.” — Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, April 4, 2011

“We have not made any commitment on this yet and we need to assess the feelings of parents. We want to see if it is possible to have some flexibility on this.” — Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib Tun Razak, April 7, 2011

“The teaching and learning of Science and Mathematics can be carried out bilingually according to the capabilities of the teachers or students.” — Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, April 24, 2011

Prior to the Sarawak state election over a month ago, Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Najib Razak made an encouraging announcement, on the possibility of using two mediums of instruction for the teaching of Science and Mathematics in schools. Parents are eagerly looking forward to a meaningful dialogue with the Ministry of Education. However, there has been no subsequent follow-up since then, leaving many of us in the dark. Continue reading “PPSMI options”

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‘Let Talent Corp choose scholars’

By Joseph Sipalan | May 23, 11
Malaysiakini

The task of handing out scholarships should be re-assigned to the newly set-up Talent Corp as this falls in line with its job of retaining talent, said the DAP.

National publicity chief Tony Pua said the Public Services Department (PSD) has proven time and time again that it is incapable of fairly distributing scholarships to the country’s top-scorers.
Continue reading “‘Let Talent Corp choose scholars’”

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Malaysian universities improve ranking on Asian scale

By Boo Su-Lyn
The Malaysian Insider
May 23, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, May 23 — Six out of seven Malaysian universities improved their ranking on the QS Asian University Rankings this year, with Universiti Malaya (UM) climbing three spots to 39th.

Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) also jumped 20 slots to 57th out of 200 Asian universities.

No Malaysian university entered the top 10 ranks while the National University of Singapore (NUS) retained its third place.

QS also said in a statement the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology (HKUST) knocked the University of Hong Kong down to the second spot.

The global higher education information specialist noted that Malaysia had seven universities in the top 200 Asian universities compared to Thailand’s nine and Indonesia’s eight.

Japan was the best-represented nation with five universities in the top 10 ranks and 57 in the top 200.

In contrast, China had 40, South Korea 35, Taiwan 16, India 11, and Hong Kong had seven universities in the top 200 Asian institutions. Continue reading “Malaysian universities improve ranking on Asian scale”

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DAP mocks PSD over scholarship oversight

By Boo Su-Lyn
The Malaysian Insider
May 21, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, May 21 — The DAP questioned how the government could make a “silly” mistake in not granting scholarships to top students despite spending billions on information technology.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin reportedly ordered the Public Service Department (PSD) yesterday to investigate complaints that some SPM top scorers were not offered scholarships.

“Isn’t spending billions of ringgit on computerisation a waste of public funds when the federal government cannot even correct the simple but silly mistake of not granting scholarships to top students?” DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said in a statement today.

Muhyiddin, who is also education minister, stressed that his ministry was not to blame as its list of scholarship candidates had already been forwarded. Continue reading “DAP mocks PSD over scholarship oversight”

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DAP blames Putrajaya for scholarship mess

By Debra Chong | May 20, 2011
The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, May 20 — Lim Guan Eng blamed Putrajaya today for the annual uproar over public scholarship awards and urged a full investigation into the education saga which he claims is draining Malaysia of home-grown talent.

The Penang chief minister was responding to the recent idea floated by Education Deputy Minister Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong as a stop-gap move to resolve the recurring problem.
Continue reading “DAP blames Putrajaya for scholarship mess”