Photo: Bernama
NO report has been submitted by the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) Policy Task Force despite it being given ample time to do so, said Fadhlina Sidek.
“The Education Ministry did not receive any report from the UEC task force. Based on the terms of reference, a period of between three and six months was given to submit the study report to the ministry starting Nov 29, 2018.
“The study period was extended six times and ended on Feb 29, 2020,” the minister said in a written reply to a question by Mohd Nazri Abu Hassan (PN-Merbok). The task force was automatically disbanded after the expiry date, the minister added.
On March 1, Fadhlina had said there were no plans to recognise UEC in line with the stand based on the National Education Policy and the Education Act.
UEC is taken by Form Six students at 63 independent Chinese schools in the country and is considered equivalent to the STPM by many foreign universities. Its syllabus is set by Dong Zong (United Chinese School Committees’ Association).
There had been calls previously to recognise UEC with Pakatan Harapan making it part of its election manifesto in 2018. The Pakatan government then set up the task force in October 2019 to study the viability of recognising UEC.
However, plans were put on hold indefinitely when there was a change of government in March 2020.
On March 4, Deputy Prime Minister and Petra Jaya MP Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof said he would be meeting Fadhlina to get an explanation over the issue. UEC is recognised in Sarawak.
On another matter, Fadhlina said the technical audit on the allegedly glitch-ridden Identity Management System (idME) will be conducted in the second quarter of this year.
“We will collaborate with Mampu (Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit) to conduct a technical audit,” she said in reply to a supplementary question from Sim Tze Tzin (PH-Bayan Baru) who asked whether the ministry was prepared to conduct an audit with the relevant bodies to identify weaknesses and failures of the system.
According to Fadhlina, as of March 16, 89% of schools have completed entering data into the ministry’s Integrated Assessment Management System (SPPB) through idME while the rest have the option to do it via SPPB or offline.National Union of the Teaching Profession had called on the ministry to postpone the use of the idME, which, it said, was not stable and viable yet to fill in the scores of the final academic session.
Fadhlina said the ministry has no intention to abolish the idME but will instead work to improve its implementation.
According to her, the procurement contract for idME cost RM454,000 while for SPPB, it was RM1.05mil.
