UEC recognition: SUPP man cites cautionary tale of removed ‘recognised’ Taiwan dental programmes

SIBU (Feb 2): The Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) and mandatory implementation of Bahasa Melayu (BM) and History subjects is merely a technical arrangement and not a systemic reform, said Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) Dudong chairman Wong Ching Yong.

He said that following a recent meeting with the Education Minister, Dong Jiao Zong (a collective name of the United Chinese School Committees’ Association [Dong Zong] and United Chinese School Teachers’ Association [Jiao Zong]), the discussion was not about EUC recognition but a ‘UEC + 2’ pathway for applications to public universities.

“In essence, this arrangement is merely a transitional administrative measure that allows students from Chinese independent schools to apply to public universities using their UEC results, supplemented by passes in SPM BM and History.

“Any education policy affecting the future of students cannot be completed by a verbal declaration of ‘we recognise it’. Without a clear legal basis and administrative procedures, such so-called recognition remains a political gesture that can be withdrawn at any time,” he said.

He cited the example of Taiwan’s dental degree programmes, where despite the Malaysian government announcing recognition as early as 1996, seven programmes were found to have been removed from the recognised list under the Dentists Act 2018 during the Pakatan Harapan administration in 2019.

“This is because those programmes were never formally gazetted under the Second Schedule of the Dentists Act 1971, leaving them in a grey area of non-formal recognition.

“This is a cautionary lesson that should be taken seriously in the UEC issue,” he said.

Wong said recognition of the UEC would, at minimum, require amendments to or clear authorisation under three key laws—the Education Act 1996, the Universities and University Colleges Act 1971, and Malaysian Qualifications Agency Act 2007.

“Recognition not written into law is nothing more than political theatre. Acceptance without institutional safeguards is merely temporary leniency.

“Even at the administrative level, the government has yet to take the most basic procedural steps, including a formal Cabinet policy decision, legally binding admissions circulars from the Education Ministry and uniform amendments to public university statutes.

Everything remains verbal. There is nothing black and white, no actual circulars. The end result could be that applications are allowed this year and disallowed the next, depending entirely on who becomes minister.

He emphasised that the Chinese community must not be misled again, and did not rule out the possibility that the UEC issue might be deliberately delayed until the next general election and used once again as a political mobilisation tool.