KUCHING: Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof will hold a meeting with Education Minister, Fadhlina Sidek, on the contentious issue of the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC).
He said the meeting with the Education Minister on the matter was to enable him to get an explanation of the reason behind the Education Ministry's decision not to recognise the certificate.
The UEC is a standardised examination held by the Malaysian Independent Chinese Secondary Schools (MICSS).
Fadillah said that at the same time, he also wanted to provide feedback to Fadhlina on the Sarawak government's approach regarding the issue.
"Fadhlina has answered in the Dewan Rakyat recently that MoE (Education Ministry) has no plans to recognise UEC as part of the national syllabus.
"I will discuss it with her. I just want to know the rationale behind the decision," he said.
Fadillah told this to reporters after attending the 'Juh Bekpes Bersama Belia-Belia 1828 Petra Jaya' program at Metro City, Matang here, today.
The Deputy Prime Minister said the previous government had decided to recognise UEC on the condition that the management of Chinese private schools accepted the national education syllabus such as History.
"This means there is still room for us to discuss with the parties involved regarding this UEC issue," he explained.
Meanwhile, Fadillah said, he intends to establish a special training centre to burnish youth leadership talent in the Petra Jaya parliamentary constituency.
" I do intend to create a special training centre not only for us to educate youth as heirs to political leadership but also as public leaders as well as in corporate and non-governmental organisations (NGO) sectors," he said.