PETALING JAYA: Students who scored 10As in Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) should have been automatically admitted into matriculation courses under the Education Ministry as promised, says Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong (pic).
The MCA president said the case of top scorers slipping through the cracks exposed weaknesses in how the policy was implemented.
“What happened to the automatic admission that was promised?” he wrote in a Facebook post yesterday.
Dr Wee pointed out that both the Malaysian Examinations Board and the matriculation division fall under the Education Ministry, with SPM results and students’ personal data linked in the system.
“From the release of the SPM results until May 1, there were more than 30 days. Are you saying internal coordination was still not up to mark?” he asked.
On May 1, Dr Wee said the MCA Youth secretariat had received 11 cases of SPM students who obtained 10As in the 2025 examination but were not offered places in the matriculation programme.
He revealed earlier yesterday that these 11 students have now been granted admission.
Deputy Education Minister Wong Kah Woh posted on Facebook yesterday that ministry records showed that the eligible students were offered places under the existing system without the need for outside intervention.
The ministry has insisted that all SPM candidates with 10As who applied for the matriculation programme have received offers under its automatic placement policy.
However, Dr Wee maintained that the 11 SPM students were not automatically admitted in the first round.
“A senior officer from the matriculation division contacted me to request the relevant details. I immediately provided it, with the sole intention of helping the 11 students,” he said.
Dr Wee said the matriculation division later explained that the omissions were linked to a surge in successful reviews by the Malaysian Examinations Board, in which candidates with 8As or 9As had their results revised to 10As.
“There were as many as 284 such cases. The officer told me that all 11 students on the MCA Youth list had their appeals approved. I was relieved and issued a statement to inform the public of the outcome,” he said.
Dr Wee said the episode raised questions about the credibility of the Examinations Board and queried about the underlying problem.
He pointed out that in 2002, the then government opened 10% of matriculation places to non-bumiputra students.
“Has the unity government led by Pakatan Harapan increased the 10% quota for non-bumiputra students? Under MCA, the figure went from zero to 10%. Under Pakatan, it has remained at 10%,” he said.
Dr Wee questioned the way the “automatic admission for 10A students” policy was applied, saying many candidates sat for nine SPM subjects and were disadvantaged by a rigid 10-subject benchmark.
When the SPM 2025 results were released on March 31, he said the Education director-general announced that 13,779 students had obtained A in all subjects.
Wong later said 6,717 students with 10As would be automatically admitted to the matriculation programme.
“This means that 7,062 straight-A students who took nine subjects or fewer were eliminated,” he said.
“In many remote schools, only nine subjects are offered. How are those students supposed to get 10As?” he asked.
