‘Accepting UEC holders at IPG specialising in Chinese not a new move’

Reports by RAHIMY RAHIM, HEMANANTHANI SIVANANDAM, MARTIN CARVALHO and TARRENCE TAN

KUALA LUMPUR: The move to accept Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) holders for a teaching degree programme (PISMP), specialising in the Chinese language at Teachers’ Training Institutes (IPG) is not new, says Dr Mohd Radzi Md Jidin.

The Education Minister noted the policy was already in place in 2011 and continued under the previous Pakatan Harapan administration.

Radzi was responding to a supplementary question from his predecessor Dr Maszlee Malik (IND-Simpang Renggam).

“When you were the minister, the programme was continued.

“The policy existed, by accepting UEC holders at IPG specialising in Chinese language to cater to the demand at vernacular schools. That is clear,” he said during Minister’s Question Time.

Maszlee had asked about the ministry’s stance regarding whether to accept UEC holders for the PISMP programme at IPG.

To the initial question, Radzi said the Education Ministry was committed to improving the quality and competency of teachers nationwide.“On the curriculum aspect, the ministry will continue to update the PISMP curriculum quality so it will be in line with current needs.

“The overall review of the teacher’s training curriculum will be done every four years. The latest review started in 2019 and is expected to be completed by 2021.

“The new curriculum will be implemented in June 2022,” he said.

Radzi also noted that for further improvements, the Education Ministry would continuously perform assessments on teachers who graduated from PISMP programmes.“After one year of being deployed at schools, the Education Ministry will get feedback on the performance of IPG graduate teachers.

“The response between 2015 and 2019 showed the performance of teachers who graduated from IPG fulfilled the needs of the schools, with an average score of 92% and above.