KUCHING, July 22 — Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) Women head Kho Teck Wan today asked the Perikatan Nasional (PN) federal government to release a report on the recognition of Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) compiled by a task force.

She said former education minister Mazslee Malik had said the report was expected to be completed by the end of last year before it was to be brought to the federal Cabinet for a final decision.

“As a person who has followed the development of UEC recognition, I am very interested to know the progress and outcome of the report,” Kho said.

“Have we got any conclusion on the study?” she asked, adding that UEC recognition has been a topic of political debate especially in the Chinese community regardless of which party rules the federal government.

She said Pakatan Harapan (PH) had promised the recognition of UEC prior to the 14th general election (GE14) in May 2018.

“However, after the election, the people were told that UEC recognition was a sensitive issue that needed survey and assessment at all levels of society,” Kho said.

Last year, the task force conducted engagement sessions with various stakeholders such as 17 socio-political education leaders, 27 non-governmental organisations (NGOs), five political parties and 14 public higher education institutions to ensure a comprehensive UEC certificate recognition.

In addition, two town hall series were also held with the involvement of youths to get their views and some MPs to comment on the issue.

Kho said UEC has been a topic of debate for decades, and it was time that this multiracial country followed Sarawak’s example and recognise the certificate that was accepted by over 600 universities around the world.

She stressed a more serious issue that the Malaysian government should look into was the fact that Chinese Independent schools produce many good students that are scouted by foreign universities as soon as their UEC results are out.

She added the students are offered full or partial scholarships to study at the foreign universities which end up causing a major brain drain to the country.