KUCHING, July 20: Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP) Stakan branch hopes that the federal government would consider extending recognition of the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) to help improve the country’s human capital and economic development.
According to its chairman Sim Kiang Chiok, the UEC which is recognised in Sarawak since 2015, helps to stop brain drain whereby most international universities recognise it and have even given scholarship for the state’s top UEC students to further their study at tertiary level in their countries.
“Our recognition helps to retain them to study at our local universities with students loan or grants by the Sarawak government. Our civil service also will employ those with UEC qualifications and has being actively recruiting these graduates ever since 2015.
“Sarawak government knows the importance of education in Mandarin in the Malaysian context which will help our relationship with China diplomatically, and more importantly in economic and trades.
“We need to have good Sarawakians with good command in Mandarin in dealing with China that will give us a much greater advantage when we trade with them,” he said in a statement today.
Sim said, by recognising the UEC, Sarawak government has given the parents and their children more options and freedom to choose the preferred education for their children, which is a welcomed move by all Sarawakians.
He said the Sarawak government had also supported the independent Chinese secondary schools in the state on annual grants since 2015 at RM4 million, and being increased to RM1 million annually, with the latest grant at RM9 million for 2020.
“This diversity in education is an asset in our human capital. We must be able to deal with all the important countries in the world be it in English, Mandarin or Bahasa Malaysia,” he added.
Sim pointed that the Sarawak government had also kept its promise to recognise UEC in 2015, unlike the previous federal government under Pakatan Harapan (PH) that had renegade on their promise to recognise UEC.
“We hope that the new Perikatan Nasional (PN) federal government will eventually recognize UEC after this new government has settled down and all the respective parties are willing to work together on giving our children another choice in education for the betterment of all Malaysians.
“Mandarin education is a need in our human capital now and political consideration should not set our country behind in this area,” he said. –DayakDaily.
