Awards for 50 top students

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THEIR hard work has paid off as 50 of the country’s top scholars who scored A+’s in all subjects in the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) 2011 qualified to join in the prestigious National Scholarship Programme.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin who announced this, said the students would be sponsored from pre-university to undergraduate level in the fields of their choice in local and foreign universities recognised by the Government.

“The Government has increased the number of National Scholarship Programme recipients to 50 this year from 30 the previous year due to the improvement in last year’s SPM results.

“This will give more opportunities to top students to further their studies at some of the world’s most renowned universities,” he said in his speech before presenting the offer letters to the recipients on Thursday.

Muhyiddin, who is also the Education Minister, said the selection for the National Scholarship Programme was based on academic merit

The first batch of the National Scholarship Programme was given to 30 of the country’s top performing students in 2010.
In 2011, another 30 students became recipients.

Muhyiddin said the Government has allocated RM2.12bil through the Public Service Department (PSD) this year to sponsor top performing students to pursue their first degrees in local and international institutions.

The PSD in a statement on Thursday, said the Government had decided to increase the number of scholarships to 50 this year.

These students are the country’s top students who obtained all A+’s in the SPM last year.

It said the 50 would be placed at various preparation centres in the country.

“They must meet the levels of excellence set to qualify to continue their studies overseas,” it said.

This sponsorship of the creme de la creme of SPM top scorers was first mooted by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak in mid-2009 and subsequently a new grading system for the SPM was introduced in the same year.

Then Education director-general Tan Sri Alimuddin Mohd Dom explained at the time that obtaining an A+ was the highest possible grade and meant students have scored more than 90% in their subjects.

Students are now graded according to A+, A, A-, B+, B, C+, C, D, E and G as previously the grades were from 1A to 9G.

The change in the grading system, he added, was to provide a detailed breakdown of excellent candidates who obtained grade A’s in the examination.

Source: The Star Online