OCTOBER 5 — Good intentions seem to be the root cause of misguided agendas of late.

This is in reference to the Higher Education Minister’s recent announcement that her ministry plans to establish a university that specifically caters to women, to "indirectly” heighten Malaysia’s visibility in the field of higher education and further strengthen the nation’s position as an international higher education hub.

The minister then went on to point out the present number of women enrolled in local public higher education institutions is more than 350,000, which is 61 per cent of the overall student enrolment, while more than 530,000, which is 53 per cent of female students, are enrolled in local private higher education institutions.

In short, we do not need a special women’s university. The number of female students enrolled in tertiary institutions has been high for many years.

In fact, last year, The Edge reported the American open online course provider Coursera’s Asia-Pacific managing director Raghav Gupta saying in a commentary that demand for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses among female students in Malaysia is on the rise.

Gupta was also reported to have said that STEM course enrolments among females in Malaysia increased from 29 per cent in 2019 to 36 per cent in 2021, citing the firm’s Women and Skills Report 2021.

So what should we be doing to retain local talents and improve the standing of Malaysia’s institutes of higher education in the world?

Reform the university entry system. In this day and age, we still hear of deserving students (females included) not getting into public universities, despite impressive results. Why are we facing this problem year in and year out?

We also hear about how deserving students, despite making the cut, not being given a place in faculties of their choice (females included).

Instead of an all-women university, the Education Ministry should tackle school dropout rates.

Last year, the ministry revealed that a total of 21,316 students did not complete their education and dropped out of schools during March 2020 to July 2021.

Why is this happening and what happened to these children?

Underage marriage is a contributing factor to this high dropout rate. In March this year, Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Rina Harun announced that the government has no plans to ban underage marriage.

Instead, she said that the government remains committed to curb the practice in the country by implementing programmes under the National Strategic Plan for Addressing the Causes of Underage Marriage.

In March last year, Unicef Malaysia noted an upward trend in child marriages here during the Covid-19 pandemic, and attributed the increase to school closures, parental deaths and families’ worsening financial situations.

Putrajaya’s own data last year showed that an average of 1,500 children in the country from various religions, ethnicities, and communities marry yearly.

In short, there really is no need for a women-only university as female enrolment in universities is already high... let’s focus on other more pressing problems instead.

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