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Thursday, February 12, 2015

WHY THE WORTHLESS DEGREES FROM UNIRAZAK? IS IT IN THE NAME?

Why-the-worthless-degrees-from-Unirazak-or-Unitar-Is-it-in-the-name-1024x576
“If the Unirazak graduates are deemed not qualified as their degrees are not recognised why allow the university to operate?”
Jimmy Adit, The Ant Daily
You have always wanted to be a teacher so you applied to enter the government universities.
But somehow none of those universities accepted you despite the fact that you have all the basic subject requirements.
You were not the only one, of course; there were hundreds others who got rejected by these government universities.
So you, like the rejected rest, looked for other options, surfed the Internet, read the education section of the newspapers and got your hands on brochures.
Then you came across this Universiti Tun Abdul Razak (Unirazak, or better known as Unitar in Kuching) prospectus:
Bachelor of Education (Hons)
JPT/BPP (MQA/PA1704) 02/15; JPT/BPP (MQA/PA1859) 02/15
APPLY NOW
That, however, was not the only option; you had another:

Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood Education) (Hons)
JPT/BPP (MQA/FA1746); JPT/BPP (MQA/PA1872) 04/15
APPLY NOW
The brochures came with a long list of requirements for both programmes.
You enrolled, put every effort you could muster through the four years, spent thousands of ringgit besides the scholarship loan they gave you, and at the end of it, you graduated.
Now that you have got the Bachelor of Education (IMSP) you thought you would soon be a teacher in a government school.
But alas, you were given the bombshell – your qualification is not recognised by the government!
Unitar’s Bachelor of Education is worthless, yet schools in Sarawak are struggling because they don’t have enough teachers!
The Education Ministry talked about re-employing retired teachers as a way to ease the problem. Even talked of looking overseas to help overcome teacher shortage.
But at the same time it insists on not recognising these unfortunate Unirazak/Unitar graduates.
“If the Unirazak graduates are deemed not qualified as their degrees are not recognised why allow the university to operate?
“The authorities might as well close it down so that people would not waste their time and money pursuing worthless qualifications,” Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) president Tan Sri Dr James Masing said when the matter was brought to his attention by Unitar Kuching graduates on Feb 6.
Masing
Masing went on to say that it was very unfair that while many Sarawak graduates were still left unemployed, hundreds or maybe thousands of West Malaysian graduates were posted to the state.
“The state has been turned into a dumping ground for West Malaysian graduates and we do not want this to happen,” he stressed, calling on Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to seriously look into the matter and be fair to Sarawakians.
“Stop posting West Malaysian teachers to Sarawak because we have people without employment who can also do the same job just as well, if not better than, teachers from Peninsular Malaysia since they understand the local situation well,” he said.
But what happened on Feb 6 was not the first.
In December 2012, Mahasiswa PKR (PKR University Students) had questioned the credibility of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak for failing to solve university graduates’ unemployment problem.
“Two thousand IMSP graduates were deemed ineligible to apply for jobs as government school teachers although MQA recognises education degrees from Unitar.
“In fact, Unitar’s ISMP syllabus is the same as the syllabus at teacher training colleges and IPTA (public institutes of higher learning). However, they are not given equal opportunities in their application to become teachers,” the movement’s president Haziq Abdul Aziz said.
Haziq has said then that both the Education Ministry and the Higher Education Ministry (KPT) were responsible in this matter as they had granted approval to Unitar to offer this course but could not guarantee employment for the graduates.
Rafizi
Commenting on the issue, PKR Strategy Director Rafizi Ramli said: “Umno-BN should be responsible for the fate of these graduates because private institutions that are offering ISMP are institutes that are closely connected with Umno leadership.” 
In the case of Unitar, what Rafizi said about being closely connected with Umno leadership was true, at least in 2012.
 
Unitar, owned by Yayasan Pintar, listed in its board of directors Najib, Muhyiddin, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein, Datuk Mustapha Mohamad and Datuk Seri Ali Rustam.
 
I note with interest when Masing talked about being puzzled by the worthless degrees granted by Unitar, which was named after Najib’s father.
 
Apparently, there are at least two other “worthless” things that also took the name of Najib’s father – Kampung Tun Abdul Razak and Kolej Tun Abdul Razak.
 
Kampung Tun Abdul Razak was a failed rubber plantation project located about 75km from Kuching along the Pan-Borneo Highway. When it was abandoned, folks were so mad that they gave the village a new name. 
 
Kolej Tun Abdul Razak was Dragon School where I spent two years doing my Form Six in the mid-70s. Among my schoolmates and classmates were Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Joseph Entulu, Mas Gading MP Anthony Nogeh, former Lubok Antu MP Jawah Gerang and Bengoh Assemblyman Datuk Dr Jerip Susil.
 
Before us were chief minister’s political secretary Datuk Wilfred Nissom, Sarawak Legislative Assembly Deputy Speaker Datuk Roland Sagah Wee Inn and many others. 
 
We like to call ourselves Dragonians.
 
Then some wise guys gave the school a new name – Kolej Tun Abdul Razak. And I believe that was the start of the slide to “worthlessness”.
 
For hardly years later, I heard that the college was renamed SMK Tun Abdul Razak. I was told it did not deserve its college status.
 
I am afraid for Unitar – and its ISMP graduates, of course.

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