PETALING JAYA, July 15 (Sin Chew Daily) — Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) holders are eligible to apply for Bachelor of Teaching Degree Program (PISMP)-UEC starting July 16 via the Education Ministry's portal, says Deputy Education Minister Datuk Dr Mah Hang Soon.

Like previous years, the ministry has allocated 20 seats for Chinese independent school graduates who are UEC holders. SPM holders of 2018, 2019 and 2020 are also eligible to apply.

In a statement, Dr Mah said deadline of the application is July 22.

"Based on the records, the response from Chinese independent school graduates have not been encouraging for the past ten years.

"Only 55 took up 200 seats offered by the program in the last ten years," he said.

Dr Mah said during a virtual dialogue held with various Chinese education groups that the education ministry hoped to increase the number of applicants from Chinese independent schools.

Graduates who have a credit in Bahasa Melayu and English, a pass in Sejarah in their SPM, along with a credit in three subjects in UEC, will be eligible to apply for the five-year program to become a trained teacher.

Dr Mah said the ministry had been upgrading the application criteria according to education policy and the Malaysia Education Blueprint, mainly to recruit the best students to become teachers in order to improve the overall quality of education in the country.

The Malaysia Education Blueprint has targeted to recruit 10% of top students to be teachers.