Criteria for scholarships must be seen to be fair

DAP National Deputy Chairman and MP for Kepong Dr Tan Seng Giaw reiterates that the new criteria for the awards of sholarships to be formulated and implemented by the Public Service Department(PSD) must be fair and seen to be so.

It is necessary to enforce the policy of merits and needs.

On 2.6.2011, Dr Tan comments on the announcement of the Cabinet decision to review the PSD scholarship scheme by YB Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri.

The awards of scholarships give rise to various reactions, some good and some bad. Those students with excellent results in Malaysian Certificate of Education Examination (SPM) expect to get scholarships. Yesterday, the Cabinet said it would sponsor 86 such students in local universities.

Next year, the Malaysian Cabinet will review the JPA scholarship awards. It will make public the findings and the decision. It seems that only those students who are accepted by famous univeisities will be given overseas scholarships and those with good SPM results will no longer be considered.

What is important is that the Government must ensure that the standards for conferring scholarships must be fair and seen to be so.

Dr Tan Seng Giaw