PARLIAMENT The Higher Education Ministry is willing to consider recognising the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) for purposes of entry to public universities if it meets stipulated conditions.

Its minister Idris Jusoh said among the conditions were that the evaluation of the certificate must be done by the Malaysian Examination Board and not an independent evaluation body, in line with the National Education Policy.

“The Bahasa Melayu subject in UEC must be on par with Bahasa Melayu at the Sijil Peperiksaan Malaysia (SPM) level and national history coverage in the UEC curriculum must be in line with national history,” he said.

He said this when winding up debate on the motion of thanks for the royal address for his ministry in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.

Idris said, to date, the UEC was not accepted for entry to public universities because the curriculum used was not in line with the national curriculum as stated in the Education Act 1996.
Meanwhile, Idris said based on the Graduates Tracer Study System (SKPG), 77.3 percent of graduates out of 238,190 respondents were employed after six months of graduating, last year.

He said his ministry used the system to measure the marketability of graduates.

“The balance of 22.7 percent who were still unemployed actually had dropped compared to the previous year, namely, by 1.36 percent,” he said.

According to Idris, based on the same system, his ministry found the marketability of polytechnic grdauates rose to 88.7 percent while the marketability of community college graduates recorded 97.2 percent.

The Dewan sits again today.

- Bernama