The task of reaching consensus

RECOGNITION of the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) from Chinese independent schools has been a long-standing issue in the chapters of the country’s education landscape. With a 40-odd-year history, recognition of the UEC has again taken the spotlight with its inclusion in the Pakatan Harapan Manifesto in the 14th General Election.

The issue is to enable UEC holders to gain admission into the country’s public universities as well as public service, which has eluded them thus far.

To thoroughly understand the matter, and its impact and effects, the Education Ministry set up a task force last September to study the recognition of the UEC.

Headed by Eddin Khoo Bu Eng, founder of the Centre for the Study and Documentation of Traditional Malay Performances, the panel of three includes Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia president Mohamad Raimi Ab Rahim and Malaysia-China Chamber of Commerce president as well as vice-president of the United Chinese School Committees Association of Malaysia, otherwise known as Dong Zong, Datuk Tan Yew Sing.

In a recent interview with Khoo said that although the issue over UEC had been going on for the last four decades, this is the first time a committee has been established to study the matter independently.

“Our job is to address this issue and provide recommendations to the government. We are not the ones who are making the decisions but as a result of our study, we will give suggestions. We have determined our methodology freely and we have agreed that the most indepth

In most of our discussions, we ended up not focusing on just the UEC issue but more of viewing the matter in the bigger education context.

EDDIN KHOO BU ENG

Founder of the Centre for the Study and Documentation of Traditional Malay Performances way (to carry out this study) is to get in touch with each party with a stand,” he added.

Since November last year, the task force has actively gathered views and feedback from various stakeholders and has up till Press time interviewed some 56 individuals and entities including associations, political parties, scholars and parents for their opinions on the issue.

“We are the intermediary party tasked to find out if the parties interviewed oppose or support recognising the UEC, or approach the issue empirically. Based on the findings we will give our recommendations in a report to be submitted to the ministry in July. It will then be presented to the Cabinet and it will be up to the government to decide.”

From the task force’s interactions with the stakeholders so far, it has observed that there are two stands with differing dimensions on the matter: to those who support the recognition of UEC, it is the issue of execution and administration.

“For them, if this administrative issue is resolved, there is no barrier to having UEC recognised,” said Khoo.

To those who are against recognition, their stance is mainly rooted in an abstract issue that is equally important — the status of the national language, national unity and national issues.

“So the meeting point is somewhat missed because of totally different angles. And it is a challenge for the committee to find the meeting point. We try to navigate the issue and look for this meeting point by holding a Socratic dialogue — by deconstructing the issue.”

While each stand must be recognised and respected, he said some of these standings are not based on educated processes and reflection on the issue so the interview process became dedicated towards gaining insight into the more in-depth issues.

“In most of our discussions, we ended up not focusing on just the UEC issue but more of viewing the matter in the bigger education context — national schools’ issues, lack of confidence in the national education system, education democratisation which already began to take place 20 years ago, parents’ choice and their view of the future of their children in a changing world,” said Khoo, adding that no one rejects the Malay language as the national language.

“All these have to be taken into question... no one side is totally right and no one side is totally wrong. Some have the view that if there