Posts Tagged ‘Student Statistics’

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defaulters owe MIED RM60 million!

May 14th, 2009
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In July 2007, it was RM30 million. At that time, the plan was to issue legal notice to defaulters.

March last year, it was announced that only 34% of the RM86 million (about Rm23 million) has been collected back and about 2000 people were served with legal notices.

In February this year, MIEd said it will sue some 4000 borrowers to reclaim some money.

Yesterday, the default amount has ballooned to RM60 million!

Education loan defaulters owe the MIC about RM60mil and the party-owned Maju Institute of Educational Development (MIED) will come down hard on defaulters.

According to MIC president and MIED chairman Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu, only RM34,907,357.83 has been repaid from loans amounting to around RM90mil.

“Legal action will be taken against the defaulters and the guarantors,” he said during the MIED’s second cheque presentation ceremony of the year at Dynasty Hotel yesterday.

“Their names will be blacklisted to prevent them from obtaining other loans and they will also be slapped with travel bans.”

Samy Vellu added that around 95% of students tried to avoid repayment and some even went to the extent of changing their addresses after completing their studies.

MIED, the educational arm of MIC, has disbursed around RM90mil through 12,500 study loans for around 9,500 students since its inception in 1984.

The MIED stopped approving loans of RM40,000 and above in March last year as many borrowers had difficulty repaying them.

Loans amounting to RM1,171,270 were handed out to 143 varsity students yesterday.

Medical students took the lion’s share totalling RM692,000, followed by dentistry students at RM106,500, while engineering students were given RM75,000.

This is one of those cases where MIC is let down by the community instead of the other way around. Shameful indeed that we have so many people who are evading paying back the money which can be used for other students.

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USM Munsyi test

April 17th, 2009
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Well, for those who got shortlisted for test – congrats!

I heard that its an objective type of questions and focuses on your apptitude/personality etc. Its basically to gauge if you are suitable for the course you applied for.

All the best!

Chance of getting: 3500/26,635 = 13%, meaning one out of every 7.6 person will get a place in USM.

Selection trial tomorrow for entry into USM

GEORGE TOWN: The 26,635 students who applied to enter apex-status Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) must not miss the Malaysian University Selection Inventory (Munsyl) special assessment test tomorrow.

USM deputy vice-chancellor (Academic and International Affairs) Prof Ahmad Shukri Mustapa Kamal said the test would enable them to select applicants who were suitable for the course they had opted for.

“Anyone who misses the test will miss a chance to study in USM. It’s just a one-hour test and it is to help the university and applicants make the right choice.”

He said USM had selected 117 locations nationwide for the applicants to attend the assessment tomorrow.

“Only 3,500 applicants will be picked to enrol in the university. The applicants will know their status at the end of this month.”

Prof Ahmad Shukri said unsuccessful applicants would have their applications submitted to the University Admission Unit (UPU) for other public universities.

He said those sitting for the Munsyl must print the attending slip from www.usm.my, bring their identification card, pencils and erasers to sit for the assessment.

“The location for them to sit the assessment can be found online,” he said, adding that the university had sent out SMSes to the candidates.

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Book on plight of Tamil schools launched

February 9th, 2009
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There were emails flying around on the book written by M.Varatharajoo. He launched the book recently. I wonder if the contents are not so true, as some quarters claim that Tamil schools are doing well and are well taken care off. Perhaps those quarters can sue the author?

ALL PRIMARY school pupils should learn their mother tongue first before they move on to their secondary school education, Kota Raja MP Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud said.

“Learning your mother tongue is a basic right of every citizen.

“Most Indians and Chinese in Malaysia have always emphasised the importance of learning one’s mother tongue hence the mushrooming of many vernacular schools throughout the country,” Siti Mariah said after launching a book by Tamil writer M. Varatharajoo at the MBSA Hall in Taman Sri Muda, Shah Alam, recently.

For the community: Varatharajoo with his book.

Varatharajoo’s book entitled Vanjikappadum Malaysia Tamil Kalvi Poraadum Makkal is based on the problems faced by the Tamil primary schools in the country.

Siti Mariah said the book showed the frustration of the author on the condition of Tamil schools in the country and the people who had abused their power forsaking the well-being of the children and the Indian community.

“The author spent five years doing research on Tamil schools throughout Negri Sembilan, Johor and Perak.

“I hope someone would sponsor this book to be published in Malay, Chinese and English languages so it can reach out to all,” Siti Mariah said.

Sri Muda assemblyman Shuhaimi Shafiei, who was present at the launch, said the Indian community had been suffering in silence for years with regard to Tamil schools.

Thanks for your support: Varatharajoo (centre) giving a copy of his book to Shuhaimi (right) while Siti looks on.

In the book, Varatharajoo talks about the first Tamil school which was the Methodist Tamil School in Penang in 1903.

He points out that there were 999 Tamil schools in 1957 and the number has now dwindled to 523 with 150 of these schools having fewer than 50 pupils.

“There are also alleged cases of headmasters taking money allocated for poor pupils.

“At the end of last year, there were 105,618 pupils in 523 Tamil schools in the country, with most of them studying in buildings that are in deplorable condition,’’ Varatharajoo, who is an author of five books, said.

He said Tamil schools were faced with various problems such as termite infestation, lack of funds for chairs and tables and some even not having enough classrooms.

The 304-page-book is priced at RM25 a copy.

Those who want to get a copy can write to PO Box No 7424, 40670 Shah Alam, Selangor, or email at varatharajoo@gmail.com

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enrolment in tamil schools increase

January 9th, 2009
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Most Tamil schools except several in the estates showed an increase in student enrolment possibly due to the migration of estate workers to town areas, the daily quoted Malaysian Tamil schools chief organiser S. Baskaran as saying.

Tamil dailies splashed the increase in Tamil school intakes on Monday.  Sounds like good news. But when I viewed the statistics in MOE website, updated on 30th June 2008, there are a total of 334 schools with enrolment less than 150 students. That’s 63.9% of total Tamil schools in Malaysia. So, it will interesting to know what’s the status now. How many schools have improved its enrollment?

In 30th June 2007, there were 4209 classes and 4022 classroom, 7263 teachers (930 graduates, 5715 non-graduates, and 618 untrained) according to one report. However, another said there were 7341 teachers, and report Jadual 3 said there were 108279 students in 4525 classes. 42 classes run dual session for one reason or another.

I have soft copies of the reports, in case the links are down.

More importantly, this recent trend of increasing enrollment means more resources have to be allocated to Tamil schools. More buildings, more allocation, more Indian teachers, more education materials, and more attention.Now itself we practically have to beg for money everytime there’s an election or event. We don’t want piecemeal action, we want long term planning and road map. So, who is in charge?

Who is in charge of planning for the future? What is MIC and/or YSS doing about this? How about Tamil Foundation? What is their role? Who do we turn to to find out more details on the future of Tamil schools?

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The Seven Proposals

December 17th, 2008
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After the final round table discussion on medium of instruction for Science and Maths today, we hear the Deputy Minister saying that seven proposals were put forward after the fourth round table, while stressing that nothing is finalised:

1. Stick to Mathematics and Science in English

– this is an acceptable solution, which I prefer.

2. revert to Bahasa Malaysia.

– this will be the alternative, but something that may not benefit in the long run.

3. let the primary schools teach in mother tongue and secondary in English.

– this is not an good idea as students and teachers will be burdened with unnecessary translation work.

4. let the primary schools decide for themselves

– this is a potential disaster in waiting. There will be logistics nightmare, and possible change of heart by the schools on their whims and fancies.

5. Mathematics and Science be taught in Bahasa Malaysia and mother tongue for Years One to Three and in English from Year Four onwards.

– another no-no. Better just stick to one language, not mix and create rojak culture.

6. a combination of mother tongue in the first three years and a choice of that (mother tongue) and English from Standard Four to Six and full use of English at the secondary level

– somehow acceptable, but still something that burdens students and teachers, and hard to monitor. This seems to be a proposal that is set to appease all stakeholders.

7. the two subjects would not be taught in the Years One to Three and instead be integrated into other subjects.

– A solution that aims to push the problem under the carpet in the expense of the students. So, what will happen to the students when the enter Year Four? What language would they use?

The analysis of UPSR results for the group that studied the subjects in English for six years showed that:

Overall, the trend has been positive. Pupils have actually done marginally better in many instances. More pupils in both urban and rural schools scored A, B and Cs in the two subjects.

Even their performance in the English language has shown a rather big improvement of 4.4% while the performance in Bahasa remained stable, said director-general of education Datuk Alimuddin Mohd Dom who presented the analysis.

Another encouraging sign was that the number of pupils opting to answer the two subjects in English had increased significantly, reflecting greater confidence in using the language.

In Tamil vernacular schools (SJKT), 62.76% of pupils answered in English for Science and 89.11% for Science.

The scenario was completely different in Chinese national-type schools (SJKC) though. Only 2.86% answered in English for Science and 1.29% for Maths.

Looks like the Tamil schools can easily adapt, but the Chinese school students are not so.

Personally, I believe its good to teach the subjects in English to maintain continuity in higher levels. The students still learn about language and culture in their vernacular environment. So, its not much of a threat. However, it will be an icing on the cake if a subject like “Tamil/Chinese/Malay in Science and Maths” is introduced as a chapter (or few chapters) in language class so that students are exposed to the terms in their mother tongue.

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