So, we have it again. Another top student without a JPA scholarship. Yeo Chin Hooi, the son of a lorry driver and a factory worker, failed to get a JPA scholarship even though he scored 15 A1s for his SPM.

However, the “problem” is that he actually took 17 subjects, and scored an A2 in English, as well as a B3 for English for Science and Technology (EST). I say “problem” because JPA tends to value quality (i.e. straight A1s) over quantity (i.e. no. of subjects taken). Moreover, he applied for a scholarship in medicine. Yes, that’s right. Medicine, the ultra-competitive course which every other top student applies for.

In any case, the primary concern here is the fact that he comes from a lower-income family, and has actually done well academically (in terms of A1s, he’s equal to Malaysia’s top two scorers). But JPA has announced that academic results (and socio-economic background) will not be the sole determinant(s) in awarding scholarships. And the article does not shed light on his extracurricular and inter-personal abilities. So, we can’t really determine how much he has been wronged by JPA here.

[News via New Straits Times]