Malaysian Government Should Re-Consider Awarding Top SPM Candidates Scholarhips to Overseas.
There are a lot
of scholarships given from the government and the non-governmental (private) to
our Malaysian students. Scholarship issues has always been a hot topic as it
involve a lot of dissatisfaction from various parties especially the non-bumis.
Bumiputra’s students has been given 90:10 percentage from Jabatan Perkhidmatan
Awam (JPA) which is also known as Public Service Department (PSD).
Due to the
dissatisfaction which arises from many parties, government has changed the
policy to 55:45 in 2009. Although the public can still complain regarding the
quota which the bumis is still enjoying, they must take note that this privilege
falls under Article 153 in the constitution in which the bumiputra is entitled
to receive scholarship.
Without any dispute, bumiputra students will have their
rights for scholarship. Is this inequality of rights good in the eyes of
Malaysians? It is definitely debatable but Article 153 is created to ensure
that bumis are given their chance to improve the education which can lead to a
better living and avoid economic gap between other races.
Bumis are
considered as the native of the nation as they have been here longer than the
non-bumis which was actually brought in the 18 centuries by the British.
Although they were brough in much later, they are the ones that hold the
economics in Malaysia. Prior to independence, the non-bumis are given the
chance to be the citizen of Malaysia provided they fight and consider
themselves as Malaysian.
In the 70’s and
80’s, the economic gap is so huge and governement has therefore developed
strategies to improve the economics of the bumis. One way to improve on the
economics is by giving scholarship to the bumis to study abroad. This strategy
has worked well as many of the graduates has returned back to Malaysia and be
part of the economic transformation. Once their life improved, they will also
ensure their following generation also improved in terms of education and
social needs.
Anyhow, those
were the days in which the first generation of the scholars. The non bumis has
started to complain from those time as they find this as disadvantaged them.
They on the other side must work hard to ensure they are able to send their
kids to overseas to pursue their studies as we were not having enough of universities
in the 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s. They keep on pressuring the government to
abolish the Malay quota for scholarship as they believed education is for all
which falls under the Malaysian citizenship.
Finally, our
government has reduced the quota for bumis to only 55 percent instead of 90
percent for JPA scholar. Although government has reduced the quota, non-bumis
are still making noise. I truly believe they will stop making such noises only
when bumis are not getting any scholarship privileges.
Due to this
never ending issues, I am writing this term paper to highlight why government
should re-consider giving scholarship to overseas universities.
Why was Bumi’s students sent abroad in 70’s, 80’s and 90’s
a. To improve the standard of living among the bumis
The bumis which were given the scholarship mostly
come from the underprivileged areas and thus one way to improve the living
standard is by giving a good education to them. In those period, our local
universities were not able to provide courses which are technical based as we were
a developing country and thus lacking behind in the education field.
By giving them an opportunity to further their
education in the field of engineering, medicine, architecture, law, they are
expected to bring in the wealth of talent to spur the country’s economic
transformation. Looking at our current progress, we can see there’s a massive change
in the economics among the bumis.
Although many claims the New Economic Program as
failure, in reality it does improved the standard of living among the bumis in
general. Definitely not entire bumis benefitted from this but without this
opportunity given at the first place, the bumis will be so much behind in this
century.
b. Bring talent which has been altered with the
experience of integration with foreigners
By studying abroad, the students’ needs to adjust
to a more challenging situation instead of just being under the nutshell. Some
of them work to gain experience as this will enable them to integrate with the
locals and some work to save money as they gain from the foreign exchange rate.
By working part time, this will expose them instead
of just studying in the university. So apart from studying for degrees,
students have the chance to work part time as foreign universities time table
is different as compared to our local universities.
Our local universities time table are quite pack
and thus it makes it hard for the local students to have part time job in
Malaysia. There are reported cases where employers prefer to hire overseas
graduates as they believe in the exposure and competitiveness in
them which can bring great benefits to the employers. In return, their exposure
will also lead to improvement in our country as well. With the
increase in the living standard, there will be greater demand for normal goods
and also the luxury goods.
c. The quality of the education system in provided by
the top univiersities are unchallenged
The quality of the education in terms of the facilities,
methods of teachings, the lecturers, the involvement with the local or
international firms and the number of international students has make the
education more interactive and highly in demand.
We take Oxford, Cambridge, Ivy leagues for US universities,
National University of Singapore (NSU) and some others as example and compare
with our local universities such as University Malaya, Universiti Putra
Malaysia, UiTM and I strongly believe the gap is insurmountable and by looking
at universities ranking,
Our local universities are not in even in the top
100 universities in the world. Looking at this, definitely anyone who obtain
good grades, will definitely want to continue their studies in the top
universities. They do not have faith in the local universities as we often hear
the changes of education policies every year. If our local universities are as
good as our neighbor country, Singapore, I believed more will fight to study in
our local university.
Lately, the
scholarship has also been a form of brilliance and prestige instead of
financial aid. There are reported cases in which JPA students who received
scholarship comes from well to do family and reason for their application is
for self-satisfaction whereby their parents and them would like to know their
kids are smart enough and deserve the scholarship. Well, JPA’s scholarship is
meant for anybody with the priority is for the under privilege applicants
although they did ask the applicants to state the salary of their parents.
Out of so many
scholarship being awarded in Malaysia, why is JPA’s scholarship a sought after
scholarship? One of the reason is there is no bond being tied to the
applicants. The successful JPA’s scholar are not forced to work with JPA but
they should serve for JPA if they are called within the first 12 months after
graduating. If they are not called by JPA within that stipulated period, they
are bond free. Most of other scholarship are not bond free. Students are
required to serve 5 -10 years after returning home.
In this case,
JPA scholarship can be considered as a mean of government social responsibility
to award free and good education to those who scored in their SPM without any
force to retain them in the workforce. Some of the students under JPA scholarship
choose to work abroad after their studies and although this is good for the
students, it is actually a waste of local talent. We are currently shortage of
skilled manpower and some of these overseas graduates tend to pursue their
dreams by not returning home.
Our Malaysian
government is at lost if this is the practice by some of our scholars.
Logically, if every year 1500 – 2000 students are being granted scholarship
from JPA, surely there will be lack of placing for them to serve JPA once they
returned home. Being a government body that awards scholarship, they should
re-look when giving our scholarship to overseas as it involves tax payer’s
money and due to this, public has the right to question this issue.
As of today,
there are total of 18 fields which JPA allows their applicants to choose.
Currently JPA is awarding scholarship in the field of:
· Medicine
· Dentistry
· Pharmacy
· Optometry
· Biotechnology
· Engineering (Electrical, Mechanical, Chemical)
· Actuarial Science
· Accounting
· Information Technology/ Computer Science/ ICT
· Pure Sciences (Biology, Chemistry, Physics)
· Architecture
· Law
· Tourism
· Economics, Business Administration, Finance
· Islamic Economics, Islamic Business Administration,
Islamic Finance
· Science
· Arts
· Education
For the purpose
of this term paper, I am reviewing the year 2007 as an example. In that year,
1800 students were given a chance to further their studies abroad. Each student
was allocated RM 500, 000 for their studies and that means government is
spending a staggering RM 900,000,000 (900 million) close to RM 1 billion every
year. RM 1 billion for only 1800 to 2000 students each year is a lot of money.
If we allocate this money for 5 years
education revamps in Malaysia, we are looking at approximately RM 5billion. Based
on this figures, I would like to oppose government of sending students to
overseas and re-look their scholarship award.
First Arguments: Government must be selective in terms of course given
for selection
I do not see
the point of sending our students to overseas for them to learn law, tourism, business
administration, finance, science and arts?
Our local universities can definitely offer these courses in Malaysia as these
courses are not that technical as compared to other courses which are being
offered by JPA.
During the
70’s, 80’s and early 90’, we do not have expertise to teach these courses
especially in the field of law, administration and finance. However, looking at
this year, 2013, to send our students to overseas universities to study these
courses seems absurd and irrelevant. It is as if JPA is just throwing money for
education.
Government
should make a study and send abroad for courses which are not available in
Malaysia or courses that can bring greater impact to our economy. Field such as oil
and gas, maritime, multimedia, aerospace, nuclear and medic just
to name a few should have a clear green light as these are crucial in the
process of achieving a develop nation status by 2020.
Since
scholarship is being awarded under their jurisdiction, they have the right for
being selective in the field selection for overseas scholarship.
If government
can proceed with this, only a handful will be sent abroad as there not all
students are interested to pursue in this field. Government must also consider
their needs when sending students.
They should ask
themselves if the scholarship given under JPA is to ensure the students work
for them or they are free to work anywhere. Since government is spending
approximately RM 500,000 for each student, we must ensure that they will bring
back something by practicing what they learned into the industry.
It will be a
waste of talent if for example we sent abroad students for the nuclear field
but in reality we do not have any space for them. End up this student might
work in a different skill which does not require their talent at all. In
reality, anyone who has a degree can work and the arguments are not all who
studied in a particular field work in the same field as well.
I personally have
a friend in my office under JPA scholarship who was sent to France to study
electrical engineering. End up is a marine coordinator which does not require
his engineering knowledge at all. The issue is why does government sent our
student to study electrical engineering in France? What is the relevant here?
Someone who studied in France must learn the language as the medium of learning
in France is French.
Isn’t this a
waste of tax payers’ money, talent and time? No doubt he learned different
cultures and exposures but government should consider all factors before
sending a student abroad.
Second Arguments: Government must be look at the costs of each students
and perhaps open more opportunities by spreading the money or fund to local
universities
Cost for one
student to be sent to overseas for studying is approximately RM 500,000. If
1800 students are sent to overseas as in 2007, then we are talking about RM
900,000,000. With that huge sum of money which JPA keeps spending yearly, they
should consider scrapping the idea of sending the normal courses to overseas.
Those courses
which I am referring to are law, tourism, business
administration, finance, science and arts.
Law for example, JPA’s are sending the scholars to UK for studies and for me,
gone are the days where law students should be sent abroad as we have the
capabilities in our local universities to produce good and reputable law
graduates.
Let us consider
one example. If JPA send only 5 students for each of the mentioned field such
above, we are looking at 30 students (5 for each course). This numbers are
merely an example as it might be more or less for each field. If 30 students
are send abroad under these fields, it means JPA is spending RM 15 million for
these 30 students. Let us take this RM 15 million and consider local
universities which have six semesters:-
1. International
Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM)
The fee ranges from RM 3000 – RM 4000 per semester
and total for 6 semesters will be RM 18,000 to RM 24,000. If RM 15,000,000 is
divided with RM 24,000, a total number of 625 students
can be given a chance to get full scholarship.
2. University
Teknology of Malaysia (UiTM)
The fee ranges from RM 350 – RM 400 per semester.
For six semesters, total fees will be ranging from RM 2100 to RM 2400. In this
case, we can send a total numbers of 6250 students can
benefit from this arrangement.
In this
example, we are only looking at those two public universities. The trade-off
for sending 30 students abroad is we can send 625 students to IIUM or total
6250 if JPA send to UiTM. In percentage we can provide 20 – 208% more
opportunities to other top students who wishes to further their studies.
However, I have
no objection for some of the field selection by JPA. To be a developed nation
by 2020, Malaysia still needs expertise and to be given a chance to study
abroad in those field, these students are the nation hope to inject new blood
in the economic progression into one of the develop nation.
Third Arguments: Be selective in the universities
In order for
government to control the scholarship, one way is to be selective with the
universities. Only the top universities in the world such as Oxford, Cambridge,
Harvard and any Ivy Leagues universities in US or some Australian and Asian
universities can be considered. Reason being is those university has a very
high qualifying requirement and those who made it can be considered as cream of
the crop. In this instance, our local scholars who made into those top
universities will gain a lot of additional benefits apart from the good
education.
Other
additional advantage is networking among the future countries top prospects,
good future employment opportunities locally and globally as graduates from top
universities in the world will always be highly sought after among the
employers. E.g. University of Oxford graduates against University Malaya
graduates. If the selection is made solely on the resume, 90% the employers
will choose the candidate from University of Oxford and put aside the other
candidate.
Sending
students for overseas universities outside the top 30 universities is actually
the same as giving a free holiday to the students. The passing grades are not
as stiff as the top 30 universities although one can argue that those
universities are tougher than Malaysian university standards. JPA is sending
their scholars to countries such as US, UK, France, Germany, Australia, New
Zealand, Korea, Japan and many more. Looking at the limited number of
scholarship against the number of qualified applicants, JPA should re-look the
universities they are sending the students.
If government
is not selective in the universities, some of the students might just hang
around with the same batch of Malaysian students and not really gaining much
from the overseas stint.
Due to this
issue, we have reported cases in which students who came back from overseas
does not master the English language. The argument is easy as the students only
speak English in their classes and most of the time; they speak their mother
tongue language which is Bahasa Melayu.
Conclusion:
Scholarship
issue is open for debate in Malaysia as it is not right for us to question
those rights for those who deserve to be awarded with overseas scholarship.
But, the question is how fair can the government be in the distribution of the
scholarship? With the rising noise from the non-bumis in regards to the bumis
who are entitled at least 55 percent in government scholarship, government will
definitely listen to them complain as we are heading towards a develop nation.
Although
Article 153 has clearly mentioned that bumis are entitled for scholarship, this
protection did not mention the percentage allocated. Due to this, the number
might fall further and thus perhaps one day bumis are no longer eligible for
scholarship provided they meet the full criteria. Based on the points discussed
above, I strongly believe that government should re-consider spending more of
the funds for overseas scholarship and distribute it to more students in local
universities.
Perhaps
government can make it more attractive by having collaboration within overseas
reputable universities by having student exchange program, link up with the
industries and having these bright students to participate in our government
agencies by giving them assignments as well. This perhaps can be a truly
winning strategy as all parties can benefitted from this arrangement. Moreover,
many bright students can get scholarship locally. Perhaps government can
consider giving overseas scholarship for courses which is not available locally
or send the students for masters or doctorate program. This is better than
sending the students immediately after their SPM.
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