Emphasizing Meritocracy Over Quotas in Education: Insights from Royal Education Award Winner Nahvin Muthusamy

By Subaashinee Kupusamy,

MALAYSIA, 3 December: Nahvin Muthusamy, who received the prestigious Royal Education Award at the 19th convocation ceremony of UTeM, emphasized the need of giving all students equal chances, regardless of their social, familial, or racial backgrounds.

The recent graduate with a Bachelor’s Degree in computer science declared that meritocracy should prevail over divisive quotas in government and public higher education.

“We need to prioritise meritocracy in the education system, instead of the quota system introduced by the political parties that divides us as a nation,” he stated.

Nahvin shared a story during his speech about a classmate from secondary school who passed away and was not able to get into matriculation.

Nahvin reported that his friend’s SPM grade was just one “A” behind his own.

He continued by saying that he was shocked to see students whose academic standing was worse than his friend’s when he first arrived at matriculation.

“My friend has passed away. However, I can guarantee you everyone that if he had the same chance as I did, he would be the one delivering the speech this morning rather than me,” he declared.

Nahvin expressed his hope at the end of his speech that the Ministry of Higher Education will give meritocracy top priority in order to guarantee justice and equal chances for all worthy candidates in the future.

Adopting a just educational system, he claimed, would help strengthen Malaysian unity as stated in the Says.