PSD Offers 4,000 Scholarships

KUALA LUMPUR – The Public Service Department (PSD) has offered 1,500 scholarships under the overseas degree programme (PILN) and 2,500 scholarships under the local degree programme (PIDN) for Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) 2010 holders.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz said 882 Bumiputera students and 618 non-Bumiputera students received the scholarships under the PILN.

For the local degree programme this year, 1,301 Bumiputera students and 1,199 non-Bumiputera students received scholarships, he said during the question-and-answer session in the Dewan Rakyat, here, today.

Nazri said the 10 per cent allocation for Sabah and Sarawak Bumiputera students remained, with 75 from Sabah offered scholarships for studies overseas under this category.

Besides that, he said, Sabah’s students were offered study sponsorship overseas under the Academic Excellence category, bringing the total number of Sabah students sponsored under the PILN in 2011 to 77.

“The government has allocated RM1.44 billion for PSD sponsorship this year of SPM 2010 holders, with RM0.36 billion of the sum for studies at local higher learning institutions and RM1.08 billion for studies abroad.”

Nazri said among the reasons for many excellent students not being offered scholarships to study overseas was the increased number of top scorers and limited government funds.

“There were also many bright students choosing popular fields of study like medicine and engineering compared to arts and science, causing them not being offered scholarships to study overseas as the offer also depends on the public sector and country’s manpower needs.

“The PSD will review and improve the existing policy in the future to avoid the scholarship offers from becoming an issue each year.”

He said the government would not be taking any action against PSD officers over the scholarship offer issue this year as there were no clear evidence that they had erred.

“There was also no abuse of power on their part as the exercise had been carried out in a proper and transparent manner in line with the Cabinet’s decision made on Jan 14, 2009.

“It is also not the government’s policy to reveal the list of scholarship recipients and the merit marks they received to the public so as to maintain confidentiality and protect the recipients’ rights.”

Nazri said this in reply to Nancy Shukri (BN-Batang Sadong) who asked for the main reasons for the ongoing issue over the PSD scholarships and offers of places at universities for students with at least 9As in the SPM.

“There’s also confusion among the public, whereby they think that PSD offered both scholarships and places or fields of study at the universities.

“The PSD actually offers only scholarships while the places or courses at the matriculation or degree level at the local universities are offered by the Education and Higher Education ministries,” he said. – BERNAMA

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