Revisit 2013 consensus on recognising the UEC

No need: The Sarawak United People’s Party says that requiring Chinese school students to sit for the SPM History paper is redundant as the UEC syllabus already covers the subject to the Education Ministry’s standard. — Filepic/The Star

ON April 1, 2013, then prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak met with a six-member delegation led by then Dong Zong (United Chinese School Committees’ Association) president Dr Yap Sin Tian at the Prime Minister’s Office. Subsequently, both parties issued a joint statement on the recognition of the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC).

The statement said the meeting focused on the issue of recognising the UEC for admission into public institutions of higher learning and discussed the requirement that Chinese independent secondary school students applying to public universities must, in addition to holding the UEC, obtain at least a credit in Bahasa Melayu in SPM. Both parties also discussed the academic accreditation of the UEC Bahasa Melayu subject.