MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek urges the government to take a second look at the race-based quota.
KUALA LUMPUR: MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek today urged the government to review the racial quotas for Public Service Department (PSD) scholarships for overseas courses.
However, he said that MCA supports quotas for the socially disadvantaged groups, students in Sabah and Sarawak and those based on merit.
“We support the quota for socially disadvantaged groups and students in Sabah and Sarawak. That’s only fair because school facilities in Sabah and Sarawak are not of the same standards as those in Kuala Lumpur or even Ipoh.
But he suggested that the 60% racial quotas should be reviewed.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nazri Aziz, who is in charge of the PSD scholarships, said that the government had allocated 1,500 overseas scholarships to top students.
Of this, only 300 or 20% of the total were given based entirely on merit to students who score straight 9A+.
The rest of the scholarships are divided under the categories of Sabah and Sarawak (10%), the socially disadvantaged (10%), and race-based (60%).
“We fully support the 60% quota but there is a need to review it,” Chua said.
He also said that applicants who were qualified for degree courses should not be downgraded to doing diploma programmes.
Chua added that the merit-based scholarship recipients should be sent overseas while the rest could study at local institutions.
He promised to raise the issue at the National Economic Action Council (NEAC) meeting with Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak tomorrow.
MCA was the first to cry foul about the distribution of PSD scholarship. Its Youth chief Wee Ka Siong revealed that 363 straight A+ students had failed to get scholarships despite Najib’s promise that all students scoring 8A+ and above would secure placements.
Najib will also meet with the PSD officials tomorrow to look into the scholarship dispute.
KUALA LUMPUR: MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek today urged the government to review the racial quotas for Public Service Department (PSD) scholarships for overseas courses.However, he said that MCA supports quotas for the socially disadvantaged groups, students in Sabah and Sarawak and those based on merit.
“We support the quota for socially disadvantaged groups and students in Sabah and Sarawak. That’s only fair because school facilities in Sabah and Sarawak are not of the same standards as those in Kuala Lumpur or even Ipoh.
But he suggested that the 60% racial quotas should be reviewed.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nazri Aziz, who is in charge of the PSD scholarships, said that the government had allocated 1,500 overseas scholarships to top students.
Of this, only 300 or 20% of the total were given based entirely on merit to students who score straight 9A+.
The rest of the scholarships are divided under the categories of Sabah and Sarawak (10%), the socially disadvantaged (10%), and race-based (60%).
“We fully support the 60% quota but there is a need to review it,” Chua said.
He also said that applicants who were qualified for degree courses should not be downgraded to doing diploma programmes.
Chua added that the merit-based scholarship recipients should be sent overseas while the rest could study at local institutions.
He promised to raise the issue at the National Economic Action Council (NEAC) meeting with Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak tomorrow.
MCA was the first to cry foul about the distribution of PSD scholarship. Its Youth chief Wee Ka Siong revealed that 363 straight A+ students had failed to get scholarships despite Najib’s promise that all students scoring 8A+ and above would secure placements.
Najib will also meet with the PSD officials tomorrow to look into the scholarship dispute.
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