Recognition of the Unified Entrance Certificate (UEC) certificate

suppadmin | September 22, 2015

President of Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP), Senator Datuk Dr. Sim Kui Hian announced yesterday afternoon that the state government had made the decision to recognise the Unified Entrance Certificate (UEC) certificate as a qualification for entrance into the state’s civil service and also University Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas).

At a press conference with his secretary general, Dato’ Sebastian Ting and Temenggong Datuk Vincent Lau, who is the President of Dong Zong Association (Malaysia Private Chinese School Management Board) and other SUPP members, Dr. Sim said he met with the Chief Minister, Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem who had recognised UEC.

According to Dr. Sim, Adenan had voiced out that the Federal government was slow to make a decision so he (Adenan) will do so to give the green light.

Pointing out that there were several criteria to abide to, Dr. Sim said those UEC students must get a credit for them to enter Unimas or the state government. Unimas, he added, has agreed with them to work out the final details and will set aside a quota for such students.

“As the pension scheme is under the Federal, it will again take time for the Federal to make a decision so the best is to opt for the EPF scheme for those who wished to enter the State civil services,” said Dr. Sim.

States governments included the Land and Survey, SESCO, Water Board, Forestry and statutory bodies like the councils and district offices.

For private universities which were partly owned by the State, it included Swinburne, Curtin and University college of Technology and Sarawak UCTS. Students could also applied to get loans from Yayasan Sarawak.

Dr. Sim said there were still some small details that need to be worked out especially those who wished to study in technical universities. “Dung Zhong under Temenggong Lau will assit there,” he said.

Chinese schools, he pointed out, were not only for Chinese as in some schools, the percentage of Bumi were over 70 percent. “This is a chance for bumi to enter State government services. We are very blessed to have a liberal Chief Minister who is a far sighted CM and moving towards Sarawak education autonomy. We in SUPP, a Sarawak based party will continue to fight for the Sarawakians,” said Dr. Sim.

He also thanked the Private Chinese School Management Board President, Richard Wee and the committee for assisting in giving them the feedback they needed.

There are 14 Chinese independent High Schools in Sarawak, nine in Sabah and according to Vincent Lau, there are over 80,000 secondary students in Malaysia. He said this year, a total of over 25,000 students will take their UEC examination and due to the high number, they would opt to go to other countries to study when they could not be accepted in Malaysia. Students usually spend six years in a Chinese independent high school. The six years are divided into two stages: three years in junior middle and three years in senior middle, similar to the secondary school systems in People’s Republic of China and Taiwan.

He hoped that with Sarawak government recognising the UEC , the Federal will do so too.

The UEC-SML is recognised as a qualification for entrance into many tertiary educational institutions around the world, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Australia, Canada and many others. It is not recognised by the government of Malaysia for entry into public universities, but most private colleges recognise it.

In Malaysia, these secondary schools were run through charities and donations from the public and they were to manage their own curriculum. The government did not give funding, unlike the national schools.