SERDANG, 14 Feb 2018:
Only first-class Public Service Department (PSD)-sponsored graduates will be offered the post of administration and diplomatic officers (PTD) in the civil service for the July and August intake, said Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Dr Ali Hamsa yesterday.
He said this is the first ever initiative by the government to see how far they could perform compared to other PTD officers in shouldering the responsibility of carrying out the government’s agenda.
Ali said the government is applying the model used in a neighbouring country where three excellent students were absorbed into the civil service and the others to the private sector.
“We want to carry out an experiment. Previously, we took in all first class, second class upper and second class lower graduates. Now we want to see if the excellent students can perform the tasks well or not,” he said after a meeting with PSD-sponsored excellent students at the Malaysia Agro Exposition Park here.
Ali said the Public Services Commission would offer the post to the graduates concerned and they would be required to sit for an examination and go for interviews before undergoing the PTD cadet course training at the National Institute of Public Administration before being confirmed to their posts.
To date, there are 10,000 PTD officers throughout the country.
Meanwhile, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) will provide an entry route for graduates of registered tahfiz (religious) schools to pursue higher education, says vice-chancellor emeritus professor Datuk Dr Hassan Said.
He said the move was in line with the National Tahfiz Education Policy, the brainchild of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak – which was aimed at producing 125,000 tahfiz graduates skilled in various fields such as medicine, engineering, accountancy, banking and architecture by 2050.
This is in line with the National Transformation 2050 (TN50).
“The ability of the students in memorising proves that they have a high level of intelligence. This ability, if continued into tertiary studies in professional fields, will produce students who are strong in religion as well as skilled in their profession,” Hassan said in a statement yesterday.
He added that the entry route for tahfiz students would be implemented in several ways such as offering Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia school-leavers who obtained excellent results, a place in UiTM’s Foundation Studies programme.
He said tahfiz students who met the criteria would also be offered suitable diploma courses.
– Bernama