PUTRAJAYA: One-third of students who graduated from public universities last year have very low English language proficiency.
In fact, 29.2% of the 120,000 graduates scored Bands One and Two in the Malaysian University English Test (MUET), which identifies them as “Extremely Limited User” and “Limited User” respectively.
Higher Education Minister Datuk Mustapa Mohamed, who revealed this yesterday, said the situation could not be ignored as the figure was too high.
“This is why we have asked universities to ensure their students' proficiency is improved. This will be done through the introduction of the Soft Skills module at all public universities,” he said after delivering his New Year message to ministry staff.
Mustapa said the vice-chancellors' committee had recently recommended that the ministry make it compulsory for students to score at least a Band Three before they graduate from university.
Under MUET, students are classified according to six bands or levels of achievement from Very Good User (Band Six) to Extremely Limited User (Band One).
“We have turned down the request as this would not be fair to students, particularly those from rural areas,” he said.
When MUET, which tests Listening, Speaking, Reading Comprehension and Writing skills, was first introduced, it was made compulsory for students enrolling in public universities to take the test. However, they did not have to “pass” it to gain entry.
A public university official said his institution organises intervention programmes in English for students who enter the university with MUET scores of Bands One and Two.
“These are really intensive programmes but we can't force students to attend if they don't want to, although we encourage those doing programmes in the Sciences to attend,” he added.
The MUET results will be released today . Candidates can collect result slips from their schools or institutions of higher learning from 10am. Private students will get theirs by post.
-from www.thestar.com.my
when i read bout this, my head went kababoom... english, the tool for higher education can be looked down like this.. wat the heck!! stpm leavers with the MUET results of band 1 n band 2 can enter public university????? (unbelievable...) wat happened to our nation nowadays? band 1 n band 2 result gainers are labelled as extremely limited user n limited user respectively for MUET test. the vocabs used in MUET wasn't too bombastic or rather too hard to be comprehend compared to certain vocabs used in the huge amount of websites available. yet band 1 n band 2 students can enter public university while the high achievers in MUET were rejected to be offered for courses. no wonder UM's std had dropped year by year after the research conducted by the TIMES as the students there were unable to communicate in english fluently. since MUET does not affects the intake of a student into university, y not the government ban it once n for all? there r certain fees for every paper tat had to be taken in public exams tat students r forced to pay in order to sit for the paper. n not every student can afford tat, me myself had to calculate each n every cent tat is my account certainly had the deepest feelings of those poor students. my dad used to say to me, "boy, u better study hard n get a scholarship to help out the family financial situation" n bcoz of this i had try my best to strive for the sky which turned out all the effort to b wasted as i din manage to get a scholarship n had to take up a loan from PTPTN for my higher education. the onli thing i dun understand is y the major race tat had loads of money kept in the bank r able to obtain a scholarship with a MUET test result of band 1 while the other 2 major races (hopefully u get the meaning) with excellent MUET results were deniened of the chance for scholarships or public university???
dun mentioned the students, even the grads from the teachers training center were reluctant to teach science n mathematics in english although the syllibus had been changed since 2 years ago. yet no actions had been taken against the teachers who had the slogan bahasa malaysia bahasa kita deeply rooted in their mind. haih...