April 12, 2012APRIL 12 — To put an end to the chaos of the issuance of National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) loans and to prevent it from affecting the election preparation, the government has announced a new mechanism.
All 1,609 students who obtained 9A+ and above in the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) in 2011 will be automatically offered Education Ministry bursaries for local pre-university courses.
These students will then be eligible for local or overseas scholarships for their tertiary studies if they meet the stipulated criteria.
In the past, the issuance of the Public Service Department (PSD) scholarships has been chaotic almost every year, with the most serious in 2011. Last year, some students scoring straight A+ did not get aid but some without straight A+ won scholarships and were recommended to study medicine overseas. Even worse, arrangements were made to send a straight A+ student to study in a teacher training institute that did not exist.
As a result, it triggered a war of words between Deputy Education Minister Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz. Nazri defended the PSD officials in charge while Wee described the performance-based system as a ridiculed system. The storm finally subsided after the Cabinet allowed 86 students who obtained 9A+ and above to get scholarships to study abroad.
There are always pros and cons. The new mechanism might be able to avoid public service officials’ manipulation of the issuance of scholarships that might allow Pakatan Rakyat to attack the government.
The new mechanism might also solve other problems, like cases of scholarships winners being unable to obtain satisfactory results in their pre-university studies and failing to secure places in foreign universities.
However, the new mechanism may accelerate the brain-drain problem.
We all know that local and well-known private colleges offer scholarships, and all students scoring 9A+ and above are eligible to apply. Why would they care about the RM2,000 to RM5,000 one-off bursaries then?
Moreover, foreign and international universities also offer various attractive scholarships. In addition to free school fees, they also subsidise living expenses.
Students might wonder whether they can still get the scholarships after receiving the bursaries. Those with good results would rather choose to study overseas and I believe that Malaysian talents are very much welcomed by Singapore universities.
The government has spent huge resources on higher education over the years. Last year, the government offered a total of RM1.44 billion on scholarships for 4,000 students. This year, the amount climbed to RM2.12 billion. As of February this year, the PTPTN has also provided RM30 billion of loans for 1.4 million Bumiputera students, and RM13 billion for 470,000 non-Bumiputera students.
Education is a long-term and meaningful investment. National development needs talent but how much return has the government received from the investment so far? How many foreign scholarship winners have actually returned and served the country after completing their studies?
If the country lacks the environment to retain talent and has to cultivate these in foreign countries, then how are we going to achieve the high-income nation goal?
Education problems cannot be resolved with political approaches. A win-win solution is indeed good, but we should never sacrifice the country’s interests and neglect the reality. — mysinchew.com
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