Chong: Govt to decide on UEC recognition
The government will make an announcement if and when the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) becomes recognised.
Deputy Education Minister Datuk Chong Sin Woon said the government is still deciding whether to recognise the standardised examination for Chinese independent high schools.
He was commenting on Perkasa threatening to “declare war” on the federal government if it recognises the UEC, as reported by an online news portal recently..
It was reported that Perkasa president Datuk Ibrahim Ali said the government should not approve the UEC as it ran counter to the national education policy, as provided for in the Education Act 1996, and Article 152 (1) of the Federal Constitution, which states that Malay is the national language.
“UEC is about education,” Chong said, adding that the issue should not be blown out of context. He was speaking to report- ers after attending the Digital Tech Awards for Schools on Tuesday.
In February, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had directed the Education Minister to conduct an in-depth study on recognising the UEC.
The locally developed examination is recognised by the California Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Oxford University, University of Cambridge, University of Toronto and the National University of Singapore, among others. However, the UEC is not recognised for admission into public universities.
On another matter, Chong said the ministry has been working on narrowing the digital gap between urban and rural schools. He added that if this was not tackled well, the divide can cause information gaps to form between rural and urban schools.
“As of now, the ministry is upgrading access to the Internet and the virtual learning environment through 1BestariNet Phase Two,” he added.