EDUCATION Minister Fadhlina Sidek’s announcement that recognising the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) is not a priority for her ministry has drawn mixed response on social media.
Yesterday (Dec 15), Fadhlina said her ministry would instead focus on efforts to address cost of living issues faced by the people related to the education sector.
Any other issues including the recognition of the UEC would be looked into by the ministry on “time to time” basis, she added.
While several netizens had raised questions about the minister’s decision to focus on the cost of living, most of the debate online was instead focused on the country’s education system as well as the controversial UEC.
User @itsamsyar said:
UEC x sepatutnya diiktiraf kerana peperiksaan yg diambil oleh mereka yg bersekolah di Independent Chinese School ini tdk mengikut silibus kebangsaan sptmana SJKC atau SJKT. Kita x mahu mereka yg berkiblatkan Taiwan/China berasimilasi dgn sistem pendidikan negara @FadhlinaSiddiq
— Amsyar Zikri 🇲🇾 (@itsamsyar) December 15, 2022
(UEC should not be recognised because the examination taken by students at independent Chinese schools do not adhere to the national curriculum like in Chinese and Tamil national-type primary schools.
(We do not want those who are pro-Taiwan or China to be assimilated into the national education system.)
Another user argued:
Kalau layak untuk di iktiraf ikut perlembagaan.. iktiraf sajalah. Kalu tak layak jangan dilayan lagi. Seseorang perlu noktahkan isu ini.. kalu tak sampai bila2 x selesai perkara ini
— none (@seigologies) December 15, 2022
(If the UEC qualifies to be recognised according to the Constitution, just recognise it and if it isn’t, just ignore it. Someone should put a stop to this issue otherwise this would be never-ending)
Meanwhile, Fadhlina’s decision to prioritise the cost of living also drew responses from netizens, with several of them wondering what does the cost of living have to do with education.
“The Education Ministry needs to focus on what will aid the further development of the country’s educational system,” user @ahmadazarul_ opined.
Apa kena-mengena pendidikan dengan kos sara hidup? KPM perlu sentiasa fokus dengan usaha pembangunan pendidikan negara.
— Ahmad Azarul (@ahmadazarul_) December 15, 2022
In response to this tweet, another user @KerkerPak said that there are plenty of factors linking the Education Ministry to the cost of living:
byk kaitannya bang. Program sarapan percuma, bantuan persekolahan, mengurangkn beban kewangan murid dan guru, kurangkn beban tugas guru, semua tu ada kaitan dgn kos sara hidup.
— Pen PM 10 (@KerkerPak) December 15, 2022
(Free breakfast programmes, reducing the financial burden of students and teachers and reducing teacher’s work burden are all related to the cost of living)
User @zahidahhamidi urged the Education Ministry to relook into the distribution of milk in schools for the B40 group, arguing that many students from this group, especially those from rural areas, do not appreciate the free milk.
“Some of them are fed-up of drinking the milk which often go to waste or is spilled in class,” the user noted.
Harapnya kaji smula pemberian susu
Ramai murid B40 luar bandar tak hargai benda percuma ni
Ada yang dah bosan minum
Susu dibazirkan, ditumpahkan dalam kelas— zahidah hamidi (@zahidahhamidi) December 15, 2022
On the topic of UEC recognition, PAS mouthpiece Harakah Daily tweeted yesterday that the National Education Action Council had urged Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to reject the demands of the United Chinese School Committees’ Association of Malaysia (Dong Zong) to recognise UEC.
TUNTUTAN DONG ZONG IKTIRAF UEC PERLU DITOLAK
Majlis Bertindak Pendidikan Kebangsaan gesa Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim menolak tuntutan Dong Zong supaya kerajaan mengiktiraf Sijil Peperiksaan Bersama (UEC).
#HarakahDaily #MalaysiaSejahtera pic.twitter.com/VYo4PDtaRK
— HarakahDaily | الحركة (@harakahdailyHD) December 14, 2022
The tweet drew many negative responses as netizens reminded Harakah Daily that it was Gerakan – a component party of the Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition of which PAS is also a member of – that had proposed the implementation of UEC in the first place.
User @PakYeopkidey said:
Gerakan ni menunggang uec ni utk pancing cina² kg baru or kampung² jer..cina² bandar xheran pun dgn uec ni..parents suruh belajar je ikut sistem yg ade..nnt amik medic ..harakah yg bongok sambung je lidah gerakan
— Dr. Love (@PakYeopkidey) December 15, 2022
(Gerakan is riding on UEC to attract the Chinese from rural areas. The Chinese folks from urban areas aren’t even worried about UEC, with parents telling their children to just follow the existing education system) – Dec 16, 2022
