Wednesday, 13 December 2023

Malaysia’s education system has deteriorated so much that its doctorates are today the butt of jokes

 No News Is Bad News

 

Malaysia’s education system has deteriorated so much that its doctorates are today the butt of jokes

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 14, 2023: The Education and Higher Education Ministries continue to ignore its failing system which is reflected by its deteriorating quality and standard.

Today, even doctorates (PhDs) from certain public universities are not recognised by many countries.

The ministries continue to ignore its low global university rankings, preferring to support mediocre students instead of recognising talent and meritocracy.

 

For image info, go to https://www.insead.edu/system/files/2023-11/gtci-2023-infographics.pdf 

 

These are the lowest ranking countries amongst the 45 countries listed in the survey:

 

The above image, ridiculing Malaysian PhDs, was found on Facebook, and perhaps indicate what many Malaysians think of our scholars.

No News Is Bad News reproduces below related news on the issue:

Radicalising the debate on global university rankings

These annual rankings are a predominantly Euro-American centric process and hegemonic, as any university that wants to participate must pay a lot of money.

S. Munirah Alatas - 14 Dec 2023, 7:00am

It is time to radicalise the debate on global university rankings (GURs). We must problematise the practice within mainstream challenges in our universities. This includes academic dishonesty, mediocrity in teaching and supervision, the reverence for quantity over quality, a high volume of irrelevant research output, and unemployable graduates.

It is time for the government and academics to both create more awareness, and embark on concrete changes. The GURs game is extremely unethical.

It is time to do something about it. Merely talking about why it is a bad thing is not enough. In this piece, I discuss GURs from a decolonial perspective, which might help to radicalise our thinking and prompt bold changes.

A decolonial perspective of GURs is a conceptual addition to the existing critiques of GURs. Criticism of GURs has been around for almost two decades, ever since the ranking game began in 2003. Yet, the momentum to rank has become even more giddy despite the growing body of criticism against it.

To generate more anger and bold resolve to reduce GURs’ exploitative influence, this re-conceptualisation is necessary. My hope is that the Madani government will embark on systematic strategies to arrest this hideous worshipping of GURs as soon as possible. A developing nation like Malaysia does not have the luxury of time. Endlessly calling out GURs for their lack of logic or ethics is useful, but not enough. We need alternatives, or at least, must ask ourselves if there are alternatives.

GURs are a colonial, hegemonic and intrusive project. Ranking is a predominantly Euro-American centric process. It is hegemonic because it dominates financially. Any university anywhere in the world that wants to participate in this annual ranking exercise must pay a lot of money. It is expensive to be ranked.

The ranking process is an asymmetrical (uneven) system of power competition. It creates “centres” (controlled by ranking companies mainly in the West) and “peripheries” (the rest of the world).

Rankers are hegemonic because they are geographically centred in “big power” territories, and exert influence over vast expanses of other territories.

The most influential rankers are based in the US, UK, and China. Apart from China, most of the familiar ranking companies emerged in countries which were former colonial powers.

Furthermore, the dynamics of relations in a hegemonic relationship are as follows: the hegemon convinces smaller entities that the hegemon’s interests should be the interests of all. This characterises the GURs.

The ranking project is extractive, financially. Universities, including those in poor countries, which happen to be most of the global south nations, are told that if they pay, they have a chance to increase their academic reputation. Year after year, many universities spiral down the ranking ladder, yet still pay exorbitant sums annually, hoping to regain their reputation.

The ranking process is biased. It normalises ranking criteria, creating universal standards. The “universalisation of excellence” is based on Western criteria. This means that data collected favours the English language. The heavy emphasis on anglophone journals and bibliometric systems creates an unfair advantage to English-speaking authors and universities in English-speaking countries.

There is also a strong science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) bias. The privileging of STEM subjects diminishes the importance of the humanities and social sciences. This has led to a recent number of silly comments by politicians for universities to stop teaching “useless subjects” like philosophy and art. The fault lies in part, with the GURs. They have characterised non-STEM subjects as parochial, inefficient and stifling international reputation. Gullible politicians are so easily influenced by GURs.

It is clear that GURs operate to marginalise diversity. GURs have a preference to “subdue” diversity, so it is easier to dominate and control the business of profit making. This is so typical of colonialism in the past, or any neo-colonial project today.

The practice of homogenising regulations across cultures and geographies makes it easy to control and exploit. In the process, regional, national, political, cultural, and economic differences among countries are minimised, even “cancelled”.

Everyone under the GURs umbrella has hardly any choice but to follow standard operating procedures (SOPs), set by a handful of for-profit organisations. This sidetracks many countries from focusing on nation-specific problems, which may entail culture-specific SOPs.

Who or what are these ranking organisations? In the literature, there are four companies which are most referred to. These are Quacquarelli Symonds, US News and World Report, Times Higher Education, and the Shanghai Ranking Consultancy. These are the most influential GURs. All are for-profit private corporations. They are the most powerful leaders of the “capitalist knowledge economy”.

These companies align themselves with major publishing businesses such as Elsevier, Clarivate, Wiley, and Springer. Both conglomerates extract data, time and other resources from thousands of universities worldwide.

The ranking customers or “clients” are our universities, ministries and various associated government agencies. Clients dutifully provide data to these greedy capitalists, annually. This in turn creates a web of demand for analytics, and data consultancy products and services.

The entire process is exploitative, time-consuming, and stressful. Universities have been conditioned to participate in this expensive, hierarchical “league of competitions”. They make rankers very rich.

In poorer nations with limited budgets, data collection is extremely financially exploitative. Competitors are tricked into thinking they can win, but in the process national budgets are strained, the quality of higher education dwindles, and national resources are drained.

GURs are very intrusive. In a developing country like Malaysia, the system influences social and political policy. They shape academic governance. For example, ministries feel pressured to standardise curricula, and to push academics to “publish or perish”.

On top of this pressure, the GURs business model distracts universities from their core academic focus. They are distracted from teaching and engaging in problem-specific research agendas. Lecturers devote less mental energy to quality supervision. They are more concerned with how many supervisees they can accumulate, and graduating them on time, if not faster.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.

Saturday 9 December 2023

Are UPM PhDs (doctorates) still worthless?

 No News Is Bad News


Are UPM PhDs (doctorates) still worthless?

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 10, 2023: Two years ago, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) doctorate (PhD), Palestinian Saed Jnaidiclaimed that the PhD he received was not recognised abroad.

No News Is Bad News wonders what is the status of UPM degrees and PhDs today.

With so many graduates, and even professors, making a fool of themselves in public and at international levels, Malaysia’s education system and standard are certainly a laughing stock.

No News Is Bad News reproduces below a news report on the plight of the UPM graduate and related news reports:

Graduate claims the PhD degree he received from UPM is “not recognized abroad” and “worthless”

By Ziin Britshi on September 5, 2021

 

Saed Jnaidi received his degree award (Phd in mass communication) on April 16 2020.

 

KUALA LUMPUR – A graduate claimed that the doctor of philosophy (PhD) degree he received from the public university, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), was not recognized abroad.

Malaysia Gazette reported, Saed Jnaidi from Palestine obtained his PhD in the Mass Communication program after graduating from UPM in 2019. However, it all came to light when the PhD had not been accredited by the Malaysian Government when he applied for a visa to enable him to get a one -year orientation in the Netherlands.

Clearly, as a residence permit holder, he is allowed to work and live in the Netherlands without restrictions. However, he was disappointed because he missed the opportunity only because of the failure of accreditation on the part of UPM, the news portal added.

“To obtain a visa, applicants must have completed at least a master’s or post-doctoral program or have obtained a PhD degree from an internationally recognized educational institution abroad which is in the top 200 in the list.

“Therefore, I applied for a visa that was included with the UPM PhD accreditation certificate in January. Unfortunately, the PhD in Mass Communication I received did not get recognition.

“I was informed through a letter received from the accreditation body in the Netherlands, namely Nuffic, that the PhD was not recognized,” he said in a statement.

Saed, who is also a holder of a Bachelor’s degree from the International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM) and a master degree from Limkokwing University, said that he has been informed by MQA that the PhD program, which had taken five years of study, had not been officially registered with the agency, thus confirming the statement issued by Nuffic.

Saed added that the same problem also happened to another UPM graduate from Palestine, Alaa Husain who graduated from the same program in 2018.

“Based on the information provided by MQA, I have gone to the UPM Quality Assurance Center (CQA) to discuss this matter further with them.

“CQA has acknowledged that they have not submitted the list of programs to MQA for registration. They only send general programs for each faculty that are not relevant to our program at MQA.

“They took action to manage this problem by sending a list of programs to MQA without including all the information required by MQA.

“Unfortunately, MQA still needs more criteria to be complied with by CQA which have not been issued by UPM to MQA until now,” he said.

Saed regretted that the issue had affected the opportunities present in his life due to the inefficiency of UPM.

He is now unable to apply for a visa or a job because the Ph.D. he holds is worthless, he said.

Thursday 7 December 2023

Malaysia tak tahu malu (knows no shame)

 No News Is Bad News

Malaysia tak tahu malu (knows no shame)

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 7, 2023: Malaysia is a country governed by Governments that know no shame since Merdeka (Independence) 1957.

No matter what office one holds, low or high, you can get away with making stupid statement without facing any action, including MPs, ministers and tertiary education lecturers.

Malaysia today is the No.1 laughing stock of the world whenever Malaysians, especially MPs and university lecturers and professors with PhDs (doctorates) making silly and stupid statement without having to account for their ignorance.

Today, socio-economically and in terms of hi-tech development, Malaysia is lagging many countries in Southeast Asia and Asia that were once behind Malaysia.

In short, Malaysia is deteriorating due to its failing education system and policies. 

Don’t take Singapore as an example because socio-economically, it is too far ahead of Malaysia.

Just compare the present Indonesia with Malaysia.

While the Malaysian Governments (governments are elected once every five years), including the current so-called Madani Unity Governmnet, know no shame, the Indonesian Government know shame and does not hesitate to sack stupid officials.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo signed a decree on the immediate dismissal of Indonesian Child Protection Commission member Sitti Hikmawaty following her scientifically inaccurate claim that “strong sperm” could impregnate women in swimming pools.

If Malaysia is to do the same to silly and stupid government officials, including those who hold high office, thousandsd would lose their jobs.

Indonesia knows shame and must act to rid the stupid government officials so that the rest of the world’s confidence remain intact.

This is certainly unlike tak tahu malu (knows no shame) Malaysia.

No News Is Bad News reproduces below a Jakarta Post report on the sacking:

This image was found on Facebook. But it is factually flawed. She's not a Malaysian but an Indonesian official

Jokowi fires child protection commissioner who made 'pregnant from swimming pools' claim

 Sitti became the subject of controversy in February after saying that women should exercise caution when swimming in public swimming pools for fear of getting pregnant.

(The Jakarta Post) Jakarta

Mon, April 27, 2020

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has signed a decree on the immediate dismissal of Indonesian Child Protection Commission member Sitti Hikmawaty following her scientifically inaccurate claim that “strong sperm” could impregnate women in swimming pools. “[The decree] has been [signed],” State Secretariat secretary Setya Utama said on Sunday as quoted by tempo.co. The presidential decree states that Sitti would be dishonorably discharged from her duty as a KPAI member. The dismissal would be carried out through the Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Ministry. KPAI chairman Susanto had called on the State Secretary to promptly dismiss Sitti on Wednesday. The agency's ethical council previously recommended Sitti’s immediate removal from office, saying that she had violated the commission’s code of ethics by making the statement. Read also: Child protection commissioner apologizes for saying ‘strong sperm’ could impregnate women in swimming pools The ethical council also said that Sitti had been dishonest in claiming that her statement was backed up by scientific studies. Council chairman I Gede Dewa recommended that Sitti resign voluntarily or risk being dishonorably discharged by the President himself. Sitti nevertheless refused to resign and urged the President to reconsider her dismissal from office amid the current COVID-19 pandemic. “Allow me to plead to the President that this is a time when every element must work together [for the country’s best interests],” she said in a statement on Saturday. Sitti became the subject of controversy in February after saying that women should exercise caution when swimming in public swimming pools for fear of getting pregnant. “There is an especially strong type of male sperm that may cause […] pregnancy in a swimming pool,” Sitti said in the interview. “Even without penetration, men may become sexually excited [by women in the pool] and ejaculate, therefore causing a pregnancy.” She initially defended her claim, saying that it was based on scientific journals, but later retracted the statement and apologized. The KPAI itself issued a response saying that Sitti’s statement did not represent the views of the organization. (rfa) - The Jakarta Post

‘Strong sperm’ could impregnate women in swimming pools, child protection chief says

‘Even without penetration, men may become sexually excited [by women in the pool] and ejaculate, therefore causing a pregnancy,’ she says

Kate Ng

Tuesday 25 February 2020 11:25 GMT

A senior child protection official in Indoniesia is facing calls to resign after she reportedly claimed women could get pregnant from swimming in the same pool as men with “an especially strong type of male sperm”.

Sitti Hikmawatty, the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) commissioner for health, narcotics and addictive substances, made the claim during an interview with local news site Tribun Jakarta last week.

She said: “There is an especially strong type of male sperm that may cause pregnancy in a swimming pool. Even without penetration, men may become sexually excited [by women in the pool] and ejaculate, therefore causing a pregnancy.

“If women are in a phase where they are sexually active, [such a pregnancy] may occur. No one knows for sure how men react to the sight of women in a swimming pool,” she added.

According to the Jakarta Post, Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI) executive Nazar said it would be “impossible” for women to be impregnated in a swimming pool.

She said: “The water in swimming pools contain chlorine and other chemicals. Sperm cannot survive in these conditions.

A popular doctor and health influencer in Indonesia, known as Blog Dokter, said in response to Ms Hikmawatty’s claims: “Once again, I remind you, if you do not understand health problems, it’s better to be quiet. Instead of your comments causing anxiety and panic.

“I will emphasise here, swimming with the opposite sex will not cause pregnancy. Not all men who swim ejaculate and sperm cannot live in chlorinated pool water, let alone swim into the vagina.”

Ms Hikmawatty issued an apology on Sunday after her claims drew backlash from the Indonesian public and the medical community.

“I apologise to the public for giving an incorrect statement. It was a personal statement and not from KPAI. I hereby revoke the statement,” she said. “I plead with all parties not to disseminate it further or even make it available.”

Susanto, chairman of KPAI, also issued a statement to clarify Ms Hikmawatty’s claims did not represent the organisation.

He added: “We hereby state that KPAI’s understanding and attitude are not reflected in the online news narrative.”

However, some Indonesian netizens are calling for Ms Hikmawatty to resign or be sacked for her uneducated claims as they caused embarrassment after going viral.

“Now that this story has gone viral all over the world, Sitti should indeed step down,” said one Twitter user.

“If you don’t step down, the whole world will think all KPAI members are stupid.” - Independent

Saturday 2 December 2023

Malaysia’s education system going to the dogs

 No News Is Bad News

 

Malaysia’s education system going to the dogs

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 3, 2023: Much has been written about Malaysia’s deteriorating education system over the past decade.

However, the Governments (once every five years) continue to live in denial, focusing on quantity instead of quality.

It also continues to embrace skin colour, instead of meritocracy, in the admission of public universities, thus forcing many bright and talented students to seek tertiary education overseas.

Most of Malaysia students graduate and do well in their various fields, thus there is absolutely no reason for them to return home.

That is how, over the past decade or two or three, Malaysia has been losing talent as the brain drain flows freely.

The above image, found on Facebook, best sums up where Malaysia’s education and socio-economic progress is heading.

No News Is Bad News reproduces below articles on Malaysia’s growing education woes:

 

Academic plagiarism and intellectual fraud

by Rom Nain

Malaysian higher education, evidently, is once again in the limelight. Once again, for the wrong reasons.

Over the past couple of days, news has gone around that four researchers from a local public university had deliberately manipulated images in a co-authored article published in a prestigious international academic journal.

These accusations, not surprisingly, were levelled by international scholars and not local ones.

The four, from Universiti Malaya (UM) - our oldest and, often enough claimed, our most prestigious, public university - were initially accused of duplicating and manipulating images of cells in their article.

An article which allegedly had three versions was published in three separate journals.

Sadly for them - and certainly for UM - the allegations initially exploded over the scientific community’s social media and then spread to other platforms, finally catching the attention of the mainstream scientific media.

The main author, not surprisingly, initially brushed off the charges, providing ‘reasons’ that even non-scientists who had examined the article found rather incredulous.

Now, it has come to the attention of the Malaysian Higher Education Ministry and the authorities at UM. And UM has acted swiftly enough to investigate yet another potential scandal and possibly discipline any wrongdoers.

There will surely be more revealed over the next few days and, I’m sure, there will be demands that the heads of the four researchers, if found guilty, roll. But will they? And even if they do, will the wider problems be resolved?

Going by previous incidences of this nature, one doubts anything major will be resolved. In 1994 a professor at the same Universiti Malaya went to court to defend herself against allegations of plagiarising the work of her students. Despite the evidence, she remains a professor till this day.

A couple of years back, the infamous Ridhuan Tee, while an associate professor at the Armed Forces University, was accused of plagiarism as well. Again, despite the clear evidence, he was able to move to another university on the east coast, getting a promotion to full professor to boot.

Then there is the infamous University of Bath/UiTM debacle earlier this year, when graduates from the UK university discovered that their theses had somehow found their way into UiTM’s repository, with UiTM’s copyright and watermark on them.

UiTM, predictably, apologised, asserting that it was a technical error that had caused it all. It is still unclear today why the Bath papers were gifted to UiTM by a staff member, and whether she or he had the right to do so.

Fundamental issues of integrity

Needless to say, there are a number of things we can - and must - take away from these cases that strike at the core of fundamental issues of integrity. Namely, the integrity of individuals, the integrity of the Malaysian academic profession and, yes, the integrity of our institutions.

It is, after all, easy to apportion blame to individuals, such as the four UM researchers or the professors who blatantly plagiarised the works of others.

But, unfortunately, these cases - alleged by many in Malaysian academia as barely ‘scratching the surface’ - will continue if the core issues and problems are not located and sincerely addressed.

Of course, one could say that they indulge in these activities because they feel they can ‘get away with it’. But why do they do it in the first place? And why does it seem so prevalent these days?

To begin to answer these questions, we would have to at least go back to this relatively recent phenomenon of university academics needing to meet pre-determined Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

Pre-determined, often enough, by university administrators more concerned about pleasing their political masters than they are about the welfare of their staff and, even less, about any commitment to a particular academic ethos.

Hence, meaningful university teaching and research be damned. Instead, a technocratic view of what higher education, particularly the role of universities and academics, is advanced.

Indeed, in Malaysian academia, increasingly it has become a case of institutions and individuals having to meet certain, often quantifiable and quantitative, targets.

And achieving high international rankings yearly has become the name of the game.

For some public universities, especially those designated as `research’ universities, publishing in top-tier Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) and Scopus journals now is the main, sometimes determining, criterion for promotion.

It is within this cauldron of quite rapid change and shifting of priorities - often directed by politicians and their ministries - that we find many of our public universities and their faculty members.

This, of course, hadn’t been the case for a long time. Indeed, it could be argued that the slide began the moment politics and notions of what has derogatorily been called kulitocracy took top priority from the 1980s onwards.

Policies that led to the recruitment of faculty due to their skin tone and, more subtly, their political affiliation, rather than the grey matter in their head, led to a culture of conformity and mediocrity being developed. For some critics this gradually replaced the emphasis on dedicated teaching and learning, and doing good research that had been cultivated in the 1960s and 1970s.

‘Carma’ academics

This was facilitated by (administrative) structures that reiterated policies and strategies that (still) disproportionately reward what the national laureate, A Samad Said, has rightly called the ‘carma’ (cari makan) academics.

These often are the apple polishers, those who turn academia into an arena where rapid advancement means getting on and moving up the administrative ladder; from section to department head, to programme chair, to head of school, to dean, deputy vice-chancellor and vice-chancellor. Stopping briefly on the way, of course, to pick up a ‘datukship' or two.

And this group has grown significantly as the number of public universities has rapidly increased. Often quite clueless as to what constitutes good - let alone path-breaking and innovative - research, yet now needing to ‘publish or perish’, they look high and low for the ‘right’ ingredients, however halal or haram, to enable them to come up not only with publishable papers, but also those that often have to meet international criteria and standards.

Unfortunately, when the environment all this while has not helped to nurture whatever research and writing skills they may have, and they now have to regularly produce ‘international’ publications, many find themselves in a quandary.

And the haram options become more enticing. Apart from manipulating data, there are other, shall we say, less haram, options, of course.

Indeed, more widespread, arguably, is this practice of putting one’s name as a co-researcher on the work done by one’s supervisee/student. Even when all the work has been done solely by the student.

Of course, dodgy publishing houses have cottoned on to this widespread desperation by academics. So, we have the case of academics (often aided by their institutions) paying substantial sums to purportedly international publishers to get their articles published in what are really dubious journals and books.

Needless to say, it is within this wider context - of dodgy academic standards, a legacy of a mediocre research culture and environment and a rapidly changing academic milieu and, of course, a general lack of integrity from the top downwards - that we have to locate the alleged offences committed by the UM4 and others mentioned.

Virtually nothing happens in a vacuum. Yes, if found guilty, the wrongdoers must be truly punished - and not just transferred to some other university where they are promoted.

But, issues of integrity, dignity and ethics will not and cannot be simply resolved that way. More detailed and critical examination of the environment, the policies and the strategies that have led to this sad state of affairs, will need to be conducted.

This would require political will and a genuine commitment to removing the rot that has set in public - and increasingly private - universities.

And I don’t believe that many of us are so sanguine as to believe that this will happen any time soon under this regime.

ROM NAIN is a media analyst and academic who is weary of incompetent, unethical leaders and their apologists and spin doctors in the media who try to get away with murder while professing to rub shoulders with God’s angels. - mkini

Thursday 23 November 2023

Education, graduates are about quality, not quantity

 No News Is Bad News

Compare what foreign graduates are churning out for their PhDs (doctorates).

Education, graduates are about quality, not quantity

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 24, 2024: Chief Statistician Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin sounded so proud when he revealed that Malaysia produced 5.92 million graduates in 2022.

He is reminded that education and graduates are all about competency and quality, not quantity.

What is the use of churning out graduates who are unable to write or converse adequately in English, the international language.

How then can they compete globally, least gain the confidence of employers.

And, just study the above image that was found on Facebook and compare what our so-called graduates are churning out for their PhDs (doctorates).

No News Is Bad News reproduces below national news agency Bernama’s news report on the millions of kangkung graduates in Malaysia:

Malaysia recorded 5.92 million graduates in 2022, says Statistics Dept

NATION

Monday, 20 Nov 2023

6:16 PM MYT

 

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia recorded 5.92 million graduates in 2022, while the graduate's unemployment rate stood at 3.7%, according to the Graduates Statistics 2022 released by the Malaysia Statistics Department.

The Chief Statistician, Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin, said the number of graduates in Malaysia rose by 5.1% in 2022 to 5.92 million people from 5.63 million in 2021.

"A positive economic environment throughout 2022 has led to an increase in the number of graduates in Malaysia, which has reached a substantial 5.92 million persons. This is composed of 23.1% of the population in the working age of 15 years and above," he said in a statement on Monday (Nov 20).

Mohd Uzir said degree holders comprised 53.9%, or 3.19 million people, while diploma holders comprised 46.1% or 2.73 million people.

"Out of the total number of graduates during the year, 5.06 million were in the labour force, resulting in a graduates' labour force participation rate (GLFPR) of 85.4%," he said.

He added that year-on-year, the number of degree graduates in the labour force rose by 5.6% while diploma graduates increased by 5.5%.

Mohd Uzir said the number of employed graduates increased by 6.0% in 2022 to 4.87 million, compared to 4.59 million in 2021.

"Around two-thirds or 65.6% were employed in the skilled occupations category, accounting for 3.19 million persons," he said.

The highest share of employed persons in the skilled category, 38.4% or 1.87 million persons, were employed in professional occupations, followed by technicians and associate professionals with 17.7% or 860,400 persons.

Graduates employed in the semi-skilled category, which accounted for 32.8 % or 1.60 million people, were largely service and sales workers (14.0%), clerical support workers (10.7%) and craft and related trades workers (4.9%). About 1.6%, or 781,000 people, were employed in the low-skilled category.

Mohd Uzir said the unemployment rate of graduates eased by 0.4 percentage points to a record 3.7% in 2022, compared to 4.1 in 2021, while the number of unemployed graduates decreased by 5.5% in 2022 to a record 187,800, compared to 198,700 in 2021.

"In 2022, Malaysia's economy had gradually regained momentum towards recovery and fostered a healthier labour market situation compared to 2021," he said.- Bernama

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