UN urges Malaysia to end racial bias in education

Kuala lumpur, Feb 14: A United Nations rights investigator, on a rare visit to Malaysia, urged the Asian country to end racial inequality in university admission.

Vernor Munoz Villalobos, special rapporteur on the right to education for the UN's Human Rights Council, yesterday said the country ranked high in terms of investments in education but lagged in human rights in the area.

Speaking at the end of his nine-day visit, the Costa Rican said two Malaysian education ministers declined to meet him but he saw education officials, teachers, parents and students.

''I must say it's an unusual situation. We requested but it wasn't possible to have the meetings,'' he said without elaborating.

A press aide to Education Minister Hishammuddin Hussein could not be immediately reached for comment. Higher Education Minister Mustapa Mohamed was not immediately available.

Munoz said his trip was to see how the multiracial nation implemented the right to education, the measures taken and the obstacles faced.

He said Malaysia continued to impose curbs on access to university intake, although the government said it had done away with racial-based quotas in favour of the majority ethnic Malays.

''Some groups have complained that in practice the limitation to the access to university is still in place,'' he said. ''I feel this is the right time for the government to determine if access is really on an equal basis.'' Malaysia, with sizeable ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities, has been running a two-tiered school system where Chinese and India schools are allowed to operate alongside the mainstream national schools.

But Chinese educationists have complained while there was rising enrolment in vernacular schools, the number of such schools have not risen a point taken up by the UN official.

''There should be a standard that links the creation of schools with the number of inhabitants of a given community.''

Reuters