JULY 16 — Although the government has vowed to retain talents, the country’s development is still driven by hardware facility and large-scale projects, various important areas have not yet achieved the talent management stage and thus, government’s policies have always scared talents away, instead of retaining them.

For instance, single-stream advocacy and rigidity in education policy have affected the efforts to attract talents.

The 2013/2014 national university admission list released by the Education Ministry has triggered a controversy. As in previous years, many students who scored perfect CGPA of 4.0 were not admitted into any courses of their choices.

If the admission is based on meritocracy, outstanding students should be admitted into their preferred courses. Isn’t it absurd to have top students failing to get into public universities?

There are 7,913 fresh Chinese students this year, accounting for 19 per cent of the total students being admitted. It is 1,073 students, or 4.3 per cent, less than last year. The admission of Chinese students has reduced by 1,544 over the past three years. And the admission of Chinese students into the eight popular courses has dropped to 20.7 per cent.

Chinese students have always attached importance to education and it is quite impossible for the number of students to drop yearly. It is not a racial issue and I believe that students of other racial groups are facing the same problem. The government has disappointed these students who had worked hard to score well, while violating the principle of appreciating talents and resources.

Take a student in Klang who scored 4As in the STPM as an example. He applied to the Faculty of Medicine of various local universities but was not admitted into any of them. If he is eventually offered an overseas scholarship, would he return to serve the country? Isn’t it a loss for the country?

The admission requirements and standards of public universities should be transparent and institutionalised. For example, the annual distribution of Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam (JPA) scholarships is chaotic due to an unfair and opaque mechanism.

Perhaps, the decrease in our universities’ world rankings is related to the “unique” meritocracy. How can academic standards improve if top students are not admitted?

Meanwhile, the Education Ministry has made the Ethnic Relations, Malaysian Studies and Islamic and Asian Civilisation Studies (TITAS) subjects compulsory for all Malaysian tertiary students. Students must also pass the three subjects to graduate. It would cause more local students to study overseas. It is contrary to the great ambition of turning Malaysia into a regional education centre.

The point of contention is, why must they make the TITAS compulsory instead of an elective subject?

Although Malaysia is a multicultural and multi-religious country, many are not embracing diversity. Instead, they are conservative and self-complacent. Therefore, they are unable to develop macroscopic policies.

To become a regional education centre, Malaysian must retain an open, liberal and pluralistic education policy to attract good students and teachers, improve the standards of local private institutions and polish the Malaysian education brand.

Education requires long efforts and thus, it needs more rationality and professionalism, or the dream of advanced country will be out of reach. — mysinchew.com

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malay Mail Online.