Press Statement by Kelvin Yii:
Since the announcement of the new intake for Matriculation for SPM leavers, I have received some complaints regarding some applicants that even though they have achieved good results in their SPM and did the necessary applications, but yet they did not get a place in the new matriculation intake.
On top of that, there are few cases shown on social media showing students scoring even 10As but did not get a place in matriculation. This issue has been a long standing issue from year to year where even though students with good results chose matriculations as their initial path to university, but due to different reasons, they did not get the desired place.
While I understand that the places are limited and matriculations is not the only path to public universities but nowadays, this program is getting more and more sought-after, since it is an extremely cost-effective route into tertiary education. Students only need to pay a small registration fee, and the rest of the costs are borne by the Malaysian government. Matriculation students also receive an allowance every semester for their use.
Normally, students who opt for Matriculation will go on to pursue their degree with local public institutions. That said, the Malaysian Matriculation is also recognised by several foreign universities such as those from Australia, United Kingdom, Indonesia, New Zealand and several other Commonwealth countries.
Based on the policy of the previous government, matriculation is primarily reserved for bumiputera students, with approximately 10% of the spots going to non-bumiputeras. However, I believe the method of admission should revamped with emphasis on merit and needs, without sacrificing the opportunities for disadvantaged communities.
Under the new Pakatan Harapan administration, 60% of matriculation intake has been reserved for the B40 community and there is even a special route consideration for the Orang Asal of Sabah and Sarawak.
On top of that, this years intake also did see a slight increase of Chinese Students intake with 1171 for this 2018 batch, compared to 982 in 2015, 1104 in 2016 and 903 in 2017. This is a good step forward but more efforts should be made to also make sure the intake process is transparent so it will not be abused so that the deserving students will benefit from it..
I have relayed the complaints to the Ministry of Education and the Deputy Education Minister, YB Teo Nie Ching is meeting the matriculation board today itself to go through the whole process and to better understand the issue. I was also informed that this issue will be brought up in the next Cabinet meeting to be discussed and to look for a way forward.
I would like to encourage those who achieved good results and applied but did not obtain a place in matriculation to appeal the decision and hopefully a review can be done or at least a proper explanation will be given.
Kelvin Yii Lee Wuen
MP for Bandar Kuching
