JPA Scholarship: We Never Learn

Every year, the award of JPA scholarship is marked by controversy. We hear the same old story of children with 12As, 13As and 14As who failed to get any scholarship.

To begin with, we see that there are more and more non-Malays are awarded with JPA scholarship. This started from the year 2000. However, it cannot be denied we have more and more students with excellent academic results who failed to get any awards. The following points are worth pondering:

1) No government in the world can give scholarship to every student with excellent results.

2) Not all students with excellent results can get admitted to the medical course (I understand most of them who are rejected are those applying for medicine). In a lot of countries, for example Singapore, excellent results do not guarantee admittance into the medical faculty. Often, they have an interview to evaluate the communication skills and the attitude of the students. I have a lot of friends’ children whose got all As in HSC A level but failed to get into the medical course.

3) We are one of the few countries that award scholarship at the SPM level, “O level” to pursue university education. Most countries is based on the A level exam.

4) A lot of students with excellent results are a disaster when it comes to the interview. I used to be a board member of the Johor Education Foundation and every year, I go around to all local universities to interview students for scholarship or loan with other officials under the Johor Education Foundation. I did this for more than 13 years. I must admit that I am appalled by the lack of common knowledge and interest by a lot of our students in universities with excellent result. We have a lot of bookworms. I don’t ask names of VIPs during the interview. Simple questions like ‘why are you pursuing your chosen course’ often elicit no response. If you are poor, how do you support yourself in the last few months in the university? The response can be unbelievable.

JPA should do a better job of sharing with the public the criteria for the selection of students. If students are rejected, give them reasons for rejection. Of course there will always be suspicion of racial discrimination and lack of transparency breeds more controversy and suspicion. I had the opportunity of a short interaction with the Prime Minister in his office yesterday and he told me that he is personally looking into the matter so that every deserving student should be awarded a scholarship although there are monetary constraints.

While it is true that more and more non-bumiputras are getting scholarship to go overseas or within the country, there is also a corresponding increase in bumiputra scholarship. The end result is that in the last 4 years, non-bumiputra students that were awarded scholarship by JPA accounted for 25.4% on average per year. For those who were awarded JPA to study in the country, the percentage of non-bumiputras is about 10%. The government should increase the number of scholarship for the non-bumiputras. While helping the bumiputras, the government should not deny the deserving non-bumiputra students of their opportunities to further their studies through the JPA scholarship. The brain drain problem will continue to haunt us until we put our act together. That act is to act like what the PM said 1Malaysia where there is fairness to everyone, irrespective of race, at the same time, the government do not neglect the bumiputras.

每一年，公共服务局奖学金都会成为大家争论的课题。许多考获12A、13A及14A的学生无法获得奖学金的投诉，层出不穷。

事实上，从2000年起，获得公共服务局奖学金的非马来学生人数已逐年增加。然而，无可否认也越来越多成绩优越生申请奖学金失败。因此，当探讨这项问题时，以下几点是值得我们考虑的：

1)没有一个政府能为国内所有成绩杰出的学生提供奖学金

2)成绩优越的学生，不一定会被接受就读医科。（据我了解大部分被拒绝的奖学金申请选择医学系。）在很多国家例如新加坡，成绩优越不是进入医学系的保证。一般上，当局会通过面示评鉴申请者的沟通技巧及个人态度。我本身有许多朋友的孩子，虽然在A水平考试考获全A的佳绩，却无缘进入医学系。

3)我国是其中一个为SPM考生提供奖学金升读大学的少数国家。大部分国家的升学奖学金以A水平成绩为基础。

4)许多优越考生在面示的表现差强人意。我担任柔佛州教育基金董事时，每年必将走访各本地大学，与基金会其他官员主持面示选拔奖学金得主。我执行这项任务长达13年，我发现大部分面示的申请者，成绩一流却普通常识贫乏，对所选择的课系也缺乏热诚。简单来说，很多都是所谓的“书呆子”。

面示时，我不会问“哪个高官叫什么名字？”。我提出的都是简单的问题，例如：“你为什么选读这项课程”，往往他们都是支吾不语，或者其他一些你无法想象的答案。

公共服务局有必要更明确地让公众了解奖学金的选拔标准，包括阐明申请失败的原因。当然，遴选的过程总会出现种族歧视和缺乏透明的猜疑，因而衍生更多争议。昨天，我到布城拜访首相时，就这项课题和首相进行交流。首相表明将亲自处理此事，尽管政府的财务有限，他要让每个值得赞助的学生都获得奖学金。

虽然成功申请奖学金留学海外或在本地深造的非土著生日益增加，不过土著的奖学金学额也相应提高了。在过去4年，公共服务局奖学金赞助的非土著生平均每年只有25.4％。获赞助在国内深造的非土著生只占JPA国内奖学金总数的10%。政府应该提高给非土著的奖学金学额，在协助土著生之余，绝不能否决成绩优越的非土著生，获赞助深造的机会。

如果我们不携手解决问题，人才外流的问题会继续困扰我们的国家。我们必须实践首相“一个马来西亚”的宏愿，在照顾土著的同时，不分种族公平对待全民。