Return of SPM

MM Online - Asked for SPM cert after 12 years on the job, radio DJ quits in protest (extracts):

KUALA LUMPUR, July 1 — After working for 12 years as a DJ at local radio station Ai FM, Chong Keat Aun was asked to submit his SPM certificate.

In protest against what he thought was an unreasonable requirement, Chong decided not to renew his contract with the Chinese-language radio station which is part of national broadcaster RTM’s stable.

"I have been with the radio station for 12 years already, at that time I had joined the radio station using my university certificate… it's only now that they want me to give SPM certificate. They said the new policy for contract renewal requires SPM certificate," he was quoted telling news portal Malaysiakini's Mandarin section.

"I did ask them, why is SPM required, they were also unable to reply, could only say this is new policy. Isn't this ridiculous? I have worked for 12 years and you didn't ask (for it), now only want to get SPM from me?" he said.

I've also heard that Malaysian medical graduates from private institutions and waiting for housemanship placements are required to pass the SPM with at least 6 core subjects in order to be accepted into permanent positions. I wonder why?

FMT reported that: ... previously O-Level BM or Bahasa Kebangsaan A (BKA) qualification was accepted for entry into public service, but from Jan 1 this year, those with such qualifications were rejected, with no exemptions given.

The graduates were told to obtain the SPM-level Bahasa Melayu certificate if they wanted permanent government posts.

I can understand the requirement to pass Bahasa Melayu at SPM level but I can't the rational to make medical graduates trained by private institutions sit and pass the 6 core SPM subjects of BM, History, Mathematics, English, Science and Moral studies.

History, Mathematics, Science and Moral studies? For f**k sake, these are medical graduates.

I am beginning to draw nasty conclusions that some lil' Napoleons, either on instructions from above or on their schadenfreude mischief are making life deliberately difficult for better qualified people.

It's not unlike the CLP exams for British trained Malaysian lawyers wanting to practise here at home.

Related:

(a) World's toughest exam.

(b) FMT - Limiting CLP exam sittings unfair, says MP which tells us:

Kulasegaran, a lawyer, said he had been calling for a Common Bar Examination for the past 10 years in parliament but to no avail. In the UK, all law students have to go through the same examination to become a barrister. “Yet, local universities have different entry requirements and then there is the CLP for foreign law graduates. Where is the uniformity in this,” [...]

He said the board had done nothing much in the past 30 years to make the CLP examination more practical as in the UK. “But the playing ground is tilted highly towards the local graduates compared with students who sit for the CLP,” he said.

(c) FMT - AG to resolve sudden change in CLP exam paper which tells us:

KUALA LUMPUR: Attorney-General Mohamed Apandi Ali has promised to look into a controversial change to the Criminal Procedure examination paper for external law graduates sitting for their Certificate of Legal Practice (CLP). 

The Star quoted him as saying: “I am extremely upset about this and will be taking action. However, I cannot disclose now what specific action I will be taking.” 

According to a report in The Star, lecturers and students are angry with a last-minute format change to the CLP examination, which will determine the future of more than 1,000 aspiring lawyers. 

It said notice of the change in format for the Criminal Procedure paper was posted on the Legal Profession Qualifying Board’s portal only on May 25, although the board had decided on it almost six months earlier, on Dec 7 last year. 

The students are sitting for the examination in August, barely two months away.