STUDENT DILEMMA RESOLVED!

33-Dilemma

FINALLY, THE EDUCATION MINISTRY ACTS

At the crux of the issue, Higher Education Minister Datuk Dr Shafie Mohd Salleh and his deputy Datuk Fu Ah Kiow finally responded positively to help the 33 students allotted places in private medical colleges.

The Higher Education Ministry has directed four local private colleges to immediately register the 33 STPM top scorers who have been offered places to do medicine even if they do not have the money to make initial payments. Its deputy minister Datuk Fu Ah Kiow said the directive was issued last week and it involved 17 students in the International Medical University (IMU), 10 in the Royal Perak Medical College, four in the Allianz College and two in the Asian Institute of Medicine, Science and Technology. he “The students must be accepted and the Government is still working out details on the convertible loan for them,” said in an interview here yesterday but did not reveal details of the loan.

In a separate news, it was reported that the 33 top scorers who accepted offers of places in private medical schools need only graduate as doctors to qualify for full scholarships provided by the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN). They will, however, have to serve as government doctors for 10 years – one of which constitutes their housemanship year.

Higher Education Minister Datuk Dr Shafie Mohd Salleh said this “one-off opportunity” should spur the students to do well to earn the convertible loans. Should they fail, drop or change their course, they would have to repay the cost incurred. “We hope that with this, the issue of the 128 students who were initially denied places to study medicine, would be put to rest,” he told reporters after his ministry’s post-Cabinet meeting here yesterday. He added that the Cabinet had decided that the PTPTN would have to allocate RM10mil to finance the 33 students.

Only RM10 million was required and they took so long to respond!

RM620 million for Ting Pek King - it's done in days!

And the solution - is it A SOLUTION just to resolve that 33 students or the Ministry does have a long-term plan to eliminate the problem? Will we have the same problem next year for the next intake? Have the Government drawn up a strategic plan, a long-term plan that will provide a long-term solution to the problem? Or is it a "TINKERING SOLUTION" to a problem now and then think of how to do it again the next time it appears?

I just wonder, how long will it take the Government to understand that they had a system that is malfunctioning and their Ministers behavior and solution making will not solve the national issue - It's DAMAGE CONTROL SYSTEM AT WORK AGAIN!