EDUCATION Minister Maszlee Malik has urged all parties to wait for a special report on the Chinese-language Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) to be completed and presented to the cabinet before commenting on the issue.

Maszlee told The Malaysian Insight he is also reserving his comments on the status of the UEC, pending the July tabling of a feasibility study report by a cabinet-appointed task force.

“The cabinet decided that a task force will engage with all the stakeholders to get information and which will then submit a report in July,” he said. 

“So until July, I cannot make any comment or any decision on that.”

DAP veteran leader Lim Kit Siang said earlier that Putrajaya will work towards recognising the UEC for Chinese independent high schools before the end of Pakatan Harapan’s term in office.

However, Maszlee said he could not give an assurance on whether this will be followed through, referring once again to the recommendations of the task force.

“I need to wait for the report. I cannot speak on their behalf.”

The UEC is for pupils of independent Chinese secondary schools, which do not follow the national education system.

The conundrum over the recognition of the UEC is a long-standing one, especially when it comes to the issue of whether the certificate should be recognised as a prerequisite for public universities.

Malay nationalists, who have long campaigned against vernacular education, see the move to recognise the UEC as divisive to national integration and a threat to Bahasa Malaysia’s standing as the national language.

Last October, Maszlee announced the setting up of a task force to study the feasibility of recognising the UEC.

Recognising the UEC was part of PH’s election manifesto. – May 16, 2019.