No study report from UEC Policy Taskforce despite being extended six times, says Fadhlina

KUALA LUMPUR: No report was submitted by the Unified Examination Certificate Policy Taskforce despite being given ample time to do so, says Fadhlina Sidek (pic).

"The Education Ministry did not receive any report from the task force. Based on the term of reference, a period of three to six months was given to submit the study report to the ministry starting Nov 29, 2018.

"The study period was extended six times when it ended on Feb 29, 2020.

"However, the task force did not submit the report up to the date of expiry of this period," the Education Minister said in a written reply to a question by Mohd Nazri Abu Hassan (PN-Merbok) in Dewan Rakyat on Thursday (March 16).

Fadhlina said that the task force was automatically disbanded after the study period expired in 2020.

She reiterated that her ministry had no immediate plans to recognise the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) in line with the stand based on the National Education Policy and the Education Act.

The UEC is a standardised examination held by independent Chinese secondary schools.

There had been calls previously to recognise the UEC with Pakatan Harapan making it part of its election manifesto in 2018 and 2022.

The previous Pakatan administration intended to recognise UEC if private Chinese secondary schools adopted the national education syllabus on subjects such as History.

However, plans to recognise the UEC were indefinitely put on hold when there was a change of government in March 2020.