THE matriculation programme has always been about race and that is why the policy has become such an emotional subject for the year-old Pakatan Harapan government seeking to end communal politics, said education experts.

Former education policymakers, academics and education activists said the debate over matriculation or “matric” is more heated now than before simply because of the government’s policy towards openness and accepting criticism.

This has allowed political parties and groups representing non-Malay students to be more strident in their criticism of the matric’s quota system, when before their voices were suppressed by Umno, the lynchpin party in the former Barisan Nasional administration.

Freedom to petition the government to amend or change matric never existed under the former BN regime since Umno often equated such dissent as questioning “Malay-Bumiputera rights”.

What was once a temporary crutch turned into permanent economic entitlement under the race-based BN government, said Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim of the Parent Action Group for Education (PAGE).

“Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has always advocated for the crutch to be gradually removed. He is for meritocracy,” said Noor Azimah.

Matriculation programmes, which can last two semesters, are funded by the government. In comparison, STPM costs are usually higher as students may sometimes have to pay for extra tuition classes.

Federal lawmaker and former Selangor education exco Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad said since BN has turned the matriculation programme into a race-based right, it makes it difficult for PH, which believes in an inclusive, needs-based national narrative, to fix it.

“It is a political hot potato,” Nik Nazmi said.

Although experts told The Malaysian Insight that the whole pre-university system needs to be reformed, they said some elements of matric should be maintained, such as its aim of helping students from low-income families.

Entry into universities should combine a needs-based approach with one that ensures ethnic, class and regional diversity is represented in tertiary education institutions, said academic Lee Hwok Aun of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (Iseas).

New freedoms, old issue

Matric’s racial elements were acknowledged by both Dr Mahathir and government adviser Daim Zainuddin. The programme was introduced in the late 1990s during Dr Mahathir’s first term as prime minister.

Dr Mahathir said it was a “back door” to getting more Malays and Bumiputera from low-income families into public universities while Daim said it was to correct ethnic imbalances.

“Matriculation historically was a programme to overcome the gap in Bumiputera students taking up science courses in universities. So inevitably it is seen as a Bumiputera issue,” said Nik Nazmi who served as Selangor’s education exco from 2013 to 2018.

The Education Ministry’s web page states that 40,000 slots are opened for students to study science, engineering and accounting of which 90% is reserved for Malays and Bumiputeras from Sabah and Sarawak while 10% is allocated for non-Bumis.

Students who don’t get a matriculation slot will have to go to Form 6 and take the STPM exam, which experts said is tougher.

What made matriculation different from students taking the STPM route is that participants in the former would be given extra coaching, said Nik Nazmi.

“The idea was to provide extra coaching and drills to allow Bumiputera students from disadvantaged families the ability to compete with those going through conventional STPM routes. Matric was successful in that,” said Nik Nazmi, who is now Setiawangsa MP.

Former deputy education minister Saifuddin Abdullah said there were rarely public debates about the programme during the BN era, including the years between 2008 and 2013, when he served in the Najib Razak administration.

“In the past, because the BN administration was dominated by Umno, BN partners would not strongly voice their opinions,” said Saifuddin, who joined PH in 2015 and is now Malaysia’s foreign affairs minister.

Umno’s approach to matriculation was not all that different from PH’s stance, which is to preserve the quota, said Saifuddin. PH, however, increased matric slots from 25,000 to 40,000.

Saifuddin said there were no new demands from non-Malay BN parties, such as MCA and MIC, or even PH parties on the allocation of matriculation spots.

Umno would use the “Malay agenda” motto to silence critics and to shore up its image of being the protector of the community, said Saifuddin.

“(Matric) is an issue today compared to under the previous administrations simply because now, people are freer to speak up.

“The fact that there is more freedom does not mean that there is less for the Bumiputera,” he said.

Race-based to needs-based

Going forward, matriculation and the country’s entire university system need to be overhauled to deal with challenges in the future.

“Pre-university programmes will require a major overhaul, to raise the rigour and versatility of their academic content,” said Lee, who previously wrote about Malaysia’s public universities when he was at Universiti Malaya.

“Ultimately, there is no running away from the need to reinstate a common entry into universities. Some form of apportionment should be worked out.

“I would start by setting aside a portion of admissions for selection solely based on academic achievement, then another portion that takes into account socio-economic background, and a third to foster equitable representation,” said Lee.

While Nik Nazmi believed that PH must move towards a needs-based approach, he cautioned against overlooking persistent inequalities between communities.

“To say that the ethnic imbalance (in universities) has completely ceased to exist is unfair,” said Nik Nazmi, whose book Moving Forward: Malays for the 21st Century advocated for Malays to abandon their economic crutches.

“Although there are a small number among Bumis who prosper and make up the middle 40 and top 20 households, there’s still a fair share of Bumis that make up the population of low-income earners, the B40.”

Saifuddin said the very idea of needing a university or college degree in order to secure a good job needs to change.

The PH government is investing heavily in technical and vocational education and training (TVET) as a way for school leavers to get quality jobs and careers.

“This (requires) a cultural transformation. Society should understand that TVET is on a par with the academic track, and not a second-class track.” – May 25, 2019.