Putera MIC gesa 3 reformasi pendidikan

Putera MIC, a Malaysian opposition party, is advocating for three educational reforms to ensure a fairer system for the younger generation. The party's national president, Shatesh Kumar Sangar, has highlighted the need for a parallel success pathway for students who achieve 8A or 9A, provided the school does not offer the maximum of 10 subjects.

The current automatic admission process to the Matriculation Program is only for those who obtain all A's if their school does not offer 10 subjects, which is discriminatory, according to Shatesh.

In the 2026/2027 academic year, the Ministry of Education (KPM) announced that all 6,717 SPM 2025 candidates who scored 10A and above, regardless of race or background, would be given a place in the Matriculation Program automatically. While Shatesh supports the current arrangement, he argues that it still has weaknesses due to the fact that not all schools offer at least 10 subjects to their students.

To address this issue, Putera MIC wants the government to create a parallel success pathway for students who obtain 8A or 9A, depending on the maximum number of subjects offered by their school.

The party also calls for the government to publish annual data on the number of applications, offers, appeals, and final admissions to the Matriculation Program, broken down by ethnicity and the B40 group (the bottom 40% of the population). In the second reform, Shatesh suggests that the government should reevaluate the position of pre-university pathways by aligning the programs under the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE).

Currently, the Matriculation Program, as well as Six Forms and STPM, are under KPM, while the public university foundation program is under MOHE. According to Putera MIC, this reorganization would allow pre-university admissions, UPU, and university capacity planning to be designed within a more coherent and structured ecosystem.

The Matriculation Program was introduced in 1998, and Shatesh believes that the structure should be reevaluated after nearly three decades. Putera MIC also demands clarification from KPM regarding the development of the recently initiated Moral Education research. The directive, issued by the Minister of Education on May 3, involves research and improvements to the structure of the examination, marking, and student outcomes.

Shatesh asks, "Now the question is clear: what is the status of this research? Are the new examination format, marking methods, and Moral Education structure going to be introduced in 2027?" The reporter emphasizes the need for the education system to be modernized, as it has been in use for a long time, if there are weaknesses that need to be addressed.

"When there is a weakness, we reform. When there is injustice, we correct it. The future of the next generation must be the priority," Shatesh concluded.