PETALING JAYA, July 10 — The Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (Muda) has today urged a shift in the country’s education system to a needs-based and merit-based approach, after Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said the Bumiputera quotas in universities will remain.

Criticising the current ethnic-based approach, its president Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman said three have been many cases of straight-A students who failed to secure a place in public matriculation programmes — but were offered spots in top global universities instead.

"We don’t want to hear any more if you get a four flat or straight-As you can get a place in the leading universities in the world like Harvard, but then you are excluded from matriculation or foundation programmes in public universities in Malaysia.

"To solve this problem, Muda suggests that we transition from a purely race-based system to a hybrid needs-based and merit-based system,” he told a press conference here.

The Muar MP also emphasised the need for political will to acknowledge the existing flaws in the education system and to pursue comprehensive improvements.

"The government must also find ways to help non-Bumiputera students who excel in their studies. If we remain quiet and refuse to have political will, this issue will persist,” he said.

He warned that failure to address this issue could result in a brain drain, with talented Malaysians seeking opportunities abroad.

"Now there are more than 1.7 million Malaysians who have migrated abroad. Highly-skilled Malaysians in the range of one million, which is a huge number. Imagine how the country lost its potential because of our failure to be proactive to change and reform the national education system,” he said.

Under the proposed need-based system, Syed Saddiq said students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds who achieve good academic results would be given priority access to education.

Syed Saddiq also suggested that this proposal be brought to Parliament for discussion, stressing the importance of bipartisan support that transcends personal politics and interests.

In addition to addressing university admissions, Muda also highlighted the need for the government to address the concerns of Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) leavers who are not inclined to pursue further studies.

Citing research conducted by the Ministry of Education, Syed Saddiq revealed that nearly half of the 2021 SPM students chose not to continue their education.

"Studies also show that for university graduates, their salary scale is within the range of RM2,000 to RM2,500 per month.

"If compared to those who did not even go to university, the salary scale of SPM graduates starts at RM2,300. If you work at Uniqlo or in the Grab sector you can reach RM3,000 to RM3,500 per month,” he said.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim suggested that Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek maintain the Bumiputera quotas in public universities, while opening up more spaces for high-achievers from other communities.

Speaking to Universiti Utara Malaysia students, Anwar emphasised that quotas were meant to help Bumiputera students become competitive as they had previously been few in the engineering and medical faculties of public universities back in the 1960s and 1970s — but it has now weakened meritocracy.