PETALING JAYA, Dec 11 — The Cabinet today gave the green light to Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr. S.Subramaniam to continue holding discussions with the Education Ministry in resolving the dispute over the ministry’s decision to cap the subjects for the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination.

Dr Subramaniam said the Cabinet had requested him to find ways in resolving the problem which he stressed, must be fair to all students.

“This is the view of the Cabinet. We (the Cabinet) spent some 15 minutes discussing the matter and decided that whatever decision to be taken must be fair to the students, including those taking only 10 subjects,” he told reporters before closing a workshop on Crime Prevention organized by the MIC Youth here.

The dispute erupted after the Education Ministry decided to cap the SPM subjects to only ten.

However, last week, Dr Subramaniam requested the Cabinet to review the decision and the Cabinet decided to allow SPM students to take maximum 12 subjects or what the ministry termed as 10 plus two.

But several Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) were still not satisfied as they claimed the decision would sideline vernacular subjects such as Tamil and Chinese languages and Tamil Literature which would be taken as the additional two subjects by some students.

This, they argued, was because although the ministry decided to allow for a maximum of 12 subjects, only the 10 core subjects would be considered for government scholarships.

Dr Subramaniam said the Cabinet felt while a solution was necessary, it must take into account the wishes and decisions of all the students and not just a few.

The minister said that 30 percent of Indian students sitting for SPM would be taking either the Tamil Language or Tamil Literature or both.

“I will continue my discussions with the Education Ministry until a solution is found,” he added.

Source: BERNAMA