The online applications to public universities of three former SMK Seri Teja students will not be affected although their eight choices had all been changed to Islamic Studies by an unidentified hacker.
Deputy Higher Education Minister Dr Hou Kok Chung gave the assurance after receiving their appeal letters.
“We will process their applications based on their choices and not their online applications that were tampered,” he told reporters after attending the dialogue between MCA leaders and Chinese guilds and associations leaders at Wisma MCA yesterday.
He said the ministry was looking into the online system to ensure that this incident did not recur.
Last Friday, the university hopefuls were shocked to find their online applications had all their eight choices changed to Islamic Studies. They were also unable to amend the changes.
The students said they had received SMSes from an unidentified person who admitted to making the changes to their applications
March 18, 2009
Students’ online application for public varsity tampered with
Three university hopefuls were shocked to find their online applications to public universities tampered with.
The former SMK Seri Teja students, who had just received their STPM results on Thursday, had all their eight choices filled with Islamic Studies.
To make matters worse, they were unable to amend the changes.
Chow Hon Mun, 21, said they could only make changes to the details on the online application website three times.
“I panicked when I could not make any changes and told my teachers about it,” said Chow when met at the Gopeng MCA service centre yesterday.
“My teachers then advised me to lodge a police report,” he said, adding that his first choice was engineering and that he had no intention of taking up Islamic Studies.
Chow added that recently he and his two friends had also received SMSes from an unidentified person who admitted to making the changes to their applications.
“I initially thought it was a prank but soon realised the person was telling the truth,” he said, adding that he was puzzled that the person had managed to procure confidential information about him and his two friends.
The other two victims were Chai Yick Loong, 21, and Ang Chun Heng, 20.
Chai said he wanted to take up an engineering course, and hoped the Higher Education Ministry could help them with their predicament.
Ang said he wanted to change the list back to his primary choices before the public university acceptance application ends on March 23.
“I hope the relevant authorities will upgrade the security system on the website so that it won’t be so easily hacked by people,” he added.
Gopeng MCA division chief Albert Chang said he would refer the matter to Deputy Higher Education Minister Dr Hou Kok Chung.
“We will help them gather all their result slips, application forms and official school letters and send the documents to Dr Hou through our education bureau,” said Chang.
He urged all public university hopefuls to check their online applications to ensure their forms were not tampered with.
The former SMK Seri Teja students, who had just received their STPM results on Thursday, had all their eight choices filled with Islamic Studies.
To make matters worse, they were unable to amend the changes.
Chow Hon Mun, 21, said they could only make changes to the details on the online application website three times.
“I panicked when I could not make any changes and told my teachers about it,” said Chow when met at the Gopeng MCA service centre yesterday.
“My teachers then advised me to lodge a police report,” he said, adding that his first choice was engineering and that he had no intention of taking up Islamic Studies.
Chow added that recently he and his two friends had also received SMSes from an unidentified person who admitted to making the changes to their applications.
“I initially thought it was a prank but soon realised the person was telling the truth,” he said, adding that he was puzzled that the person had managed to procure confidential information about him and his two friends.
The other two victims were Chai Yick Loong, 21, and Ang Chun Heng, 20.
Chai said he wanted to take up an engineering course, and hoped the Higher Education Ministry could help them with their predicament.
Ang said he wanted to change the list back to his primary choices before the public university acceptance application ends on March 23.
“I hope the relevant authorities will upgrade the security system on the website so that it won’t be so easily hacked by people,” he added.
Gopeng MCA division chief Albert Chang said he would refer the matter to Deputy Higher Education Minister Dr Hou Kok Chung.
“We will help them gather all their result slips, application forms and official school letters and send the documents to Dr Hou through our education bureau,” said Chang.
He urged all public university hopefuls to check their online applications to ensure their forms were not tampered with.
Decision known by mid-April on language for Maths and Science
The Cabinet is expected to make a decision on the language of instruction for Mathematics and Science in mid-April.
Education Minister Datuk Seri Hisham-muddin Tun Hussein said this was the earliest he could possibly present it to Cabinet, in reference to whether the teaching of the two subjects continues in English or reverts to Bahasa Malaysia and mother tongue (Chinese and Tamil).
"There is no hurry anyway as we have spent RM3bil since the introduction of the policy in 2003."- DATUK SERI HISHAMMUDDIN TUN HUSSEIN EDUCATION MINISTER
“It is not possible to table it this Friday as a memorandum is being circulated to various ministries for feedback.
“There is also time to hear what the delegates have to say at the Umno assembly next week,” he told The Star.
Hishammuddin said parent-teacher associations nationwide were also holding their annual meetings and he had asked that they make this a part of their agenda.
“There is no hurry anyway as we have spent more than RM3bil since the introduction of the policy in 2003,” he said.
Almost 100,000 teachers were involved and over six million students had gone through the policy, he added.
“Two-and-a-half months since the release of the UPSR results for the first cohort (who were taught the two subjects in English from Year One in 2003) is not long,” he said.
On a report in online news portal, Malaysian Insider, quoting sources that the policy was likely to revert to Bahasa Malaysia and mother tongue for primary schools, Hishammuddin said this was not possible.
“Any policy decision must go through the Cabinet. The decision in 2003 was also made by the Cabinet,” he said.
Education director-general Datuk Alimuddin Mohd Dom urged the public to refrain from speculating on the policy.
“A memorandum on the policy was circulated to several ministries for feedback last week,” he said.
The Teaching of Mathematics and Science in English (ETeMS or better known by its Malay acronym, PPSMI) policy was implemented in phases, beginning with Year One, Form One and Lower Six students in 2003 during the tenure of former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
It was reported last week that Dr Mahathir defended the use of English to teach Science and Mathematics, saying it was necessary to ensure Malaysia could keep up with the rest of the world.
He said it would be better for people to know the language so they could get the information themselves.
Education Minister Datuk Seri Hisham-muddin Tun Hussein said this was the earliest he could possibly present it to Cabinet, in reference to whether the teaching of the two subjects continues in English or reverts to Bahasa Malaysia and mother tongue (Chinese and Tamil).
"There is no hurry anyway as we have spent RM3bil since the introduction of the policy in 2003."- DATUK SERI HISHAMMUDDIN TUN HUSSEIN EDUCATION MINISTER
“It is not possible to table it this Friday as a memorandum is being circulated to various ministries for feedback.
“There is also time to hear what the delegates have to say at the Umno assembly next week,” he told The Star.
Hishammuddin said parent-teacher associations nationwide were also holding their annual meetings and he had asked that they make this a part of their agenda.
“There is no hurry anyway as we have spent more than RM3bil since the introduction of the policy in 2003,” he said.
Almost 100,000 teachers were involved and over six million students had gone through the policy, he added.
“Two-and-a-half months since the release of the UPSR results for the first cohort (who were taught the two subjects in English from Year One in 2003) is not long,” he said.
On a report in online news portal, Malaysian Insider, quoting sources that the policy was likely to revert to Bahasa Malaysia and mother tongue for primary schools, Hishammuddin said this was not possible.
“Any policy decision must go through the Cabinet. The decision in 2003 was also made by the Cabinet,” he said.
Education director-general Datuk Alimuddin Mohd Dom urged the public to refrain from speculating on the policy.
“A memorandum on the policy was circulated to several ministries for feedback last week,” he said.
The Teaching of Mathematics and Science in English (ETeMS or better known by its Malay acronym, PPSMI) policy was implemented in phases, beginning with Year One, Form One and Lower Six students in 2003 during the tenure of former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
It was reported last week that Dr Mahathir defended the use of English to teach Science and Mathematics, saying it was necessary to ensure Malaysia could keep up with the rest of the world.
He said it would be better for people to know the language so they could get the information themselves.
March 15, 2009
School with one pupil all set for relocation
A Chinese school with only one student in Batu Pahat will be relocated to Horizon Hills in Nusajaya next year, said MCA vice-president Tan Kok Hong.
The relocation of SJK (C) Ming Chih would begin next month and is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
Tan said the first phase of the project would be a canteen and a four-storey building which would have 16 classrooms, a library, computer room and science laboratories.
He said the school would be able to accommodate 1,200 pupils.
He said the sole student of the school was in Year Six this year and they hoped to take a fresh batch of students by 2010.
“The registration for Year One to Year Three students for the school will be held next week at SJK (C) Pei Hwa and SJK (C) Kuo Kuang 2,” he told reporters after the presentation of plans for the school in Horizon Hills Golf and Country Club here yesterday.
Tan added that the 2ha land and the construction cost for the school would be borne by Gamuda Land and UEM Land, which jointly developed Horizon Hills.
Tebrau MCA deputy chairman Senator Khoo Soo Seang said he would apply for tax exemptions for the building so the money could be channelled to improving the school later.
Gelang Patah MP Tan Ah Eng, who was also present, said the new school would support the needs of pupils as the population in Nusajaya was growing rapidly.
Horizon Hills senior marketing manager Jim Woon said they hoped to continue working with the MCA and school authorities to organise charity drives to raise funds for construction of following phases.
TS
The relocation of SJK (C) Ming Chih would begin next month and is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
Tan said the first phase of the project would be a canteen and a four-storey building which would have 16 classrooms, a library, computer room and science laboratories.
He said the school would be able to accommodate 1,200 pupils.
He said the sole student of the school was in Year Six this year and they hoped to take a fresh batch of students by 2010.
“The registration for Year One to Year Three students for the school will be held next week at SJK (C) Pei Hwa and SJK (C) Kuo Kuang 2,” he told reporters after the presentation of plans for the school in Horizon Hills Golf and Country Club here yesterday.
Tan added that the 2ha land and the construction cost for the school would be borne by Gamuda Land and UEM Land, which jointly developed Horizon Hills.
Tebrau MCA deputy chairman Senator Khoo Soo Seang said he would apply for tax exemptions for the building so the money could be channelled to improving the school later.
Gelang Patah MP Tan Ah Eng, who was also present, said the new school would support the needs of pupils as the population in Nusajaya was growing rapidly.
Horizon Hills senior marketing manager Jim Woon said they hoped to continue working with the MCA and school authorities to organise charity drives to raise funds for construction of following phases.
TS
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)