Some 50 HRP members gathered outside Parliament House today, also demanding that RM20 billion from the 2010 Budget be allocated for education.
They want RM10 billion for scholarships for high achievers and RM10 billion for study loans for students who score at least 7As at Sijil Pelaran Malaysia level.
"Education is the responsibility of the federal government. (The system now) is not fair because it is based on race, supremacy and segregation to what should rightly be needs based," said HRP chief P Uthayakumar.
He said students who opt for pre-university programmes offered by the government, such as STPM and the matriculation course, do not have equal opportunities.
"How can it be fair when we have different pre-university programmes? (Indian students) have to go through the tougher path of STPM without any guarantee of securing a place in the universities,” he said.
"Almost all Malay-Muslim students opt for the matriculation programmes. Almost all of over 40,000 places in the 11 matriculation colleges nationwide are reserved for Malay students (pursuing) the 10-month course, as opposed to the two-year STPM course.
"This has become a source of contention because matriculation students will enter university as year earlier compared to their STPM peers.”
Uthayakumar pointed to glaring differences between the two programmes, claiming that matriculation students have it easier because the “syllabus is watered down”.
"The disparities between the programmes don't end (at the marking criteria). It is a known fact that in critical courses offered by public universities - such as medicine, pharmacy, dentistry and law - almost 70 percent comprise matriculation students.”
Call for transparency
However, said Uthayakumar, many have complained that they do not get scholarships despite scoring 13As.
"Our estimate is that a mere 0.1-1 percent of these 12,000 and other public university scholarships and matriculation places are granted to poor and underprivileged Indian students.”
In a memorandum handed to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's special aide Ghazali Ibrahim, HRP urged the government to be transparent in the selection process.
"We call for an end to this race segregationist- and supremacist-based higher education policy. All poor Indians, Orang Asli, Kadazan, Iban, Malay and Chinese students (must be) given the right to equal access to higher education.”
They also urged the premier to form a royal commission of inquiry to end "the 53-year-old race segregationist and supremacist higher education policy".
Attached to the memorandum were names of students who have been denied scholarships, together with a petition with more than 12,000 signatures.
No comments:
Post a Comment