Malaysian Hockey Confederation Clarifies Athlete's University & Scholarship Issue
In a statement, MHC explained that various efforts and assistance had already been provided to assist the 19-year-old hockey player.
By Suraya Athira — 12 Sep 2022, 01:15 PM
National hockey athlete Kirandeep Kaur went viral last week after tweeting her struggles over obtaining a scholarship
In the tweet, she lamented the difficulty of being accepted into a university despite being a national athlete with outstanding academic achievements.
"I feel so unappreciated," said Kirandeep, after sharing that she achieved 9A's in SPM and a 3.88 CGPA in matriculation, but did not receive any scholarship to further her studies at a university.
Following the outcry, the Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) has released a statement to clarify the situation
"The Malaysian Hockey Confederation is deeply saddened by Malaysian hockey athlete Kirandeep Kaur's statement on Twitter dated 08 September 2022 regarding the opportunity to study at university as well as scholarships."
It added that the National Sports Council (NSC), national coach Nasihin Nubli, and team manager Siti Amarina Ruhani were aware of Kirandeep's excellent SPM 2021 results.
MHC and NSC have been tracking the progress of Kirandeep's studies since her matriculation placement in Gambang in May 2021. In fact, there was also an effort to convert her studies in Gambang to another matriculation college in Selangor to allow her to join the national junior and senior team trainings in Bukit Jalil.
However, this could not be done as it would have affected her studies. Kirandeep continued her training online with the help of a trainer instead. MHC also stated that she continued to receive her training allowance to allow her to study while undergoing centralised training in preparation for the Youth Hockey World Cup.
During her matriculation studies in Gambang from May 2021 until May 2022, she was given flexibility and support
The flexibility included Kirandeep's decision not to represent the national team in the Women's Asian Champions Trophy in South Korea (December 2021) and the Women's Hockey Asian Cup (January 2022), as she wanted to focus on her studies, read the statement.
After completing matriculation, the MHC board informed Kirandeep that assistance will be provided to her when she applied to public universities through the Unit Pusat Universiti (UPU) portal
"The Board replied that all assistance possible will be provided. The MHC has already discussed the matter with officials at the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE), which provided very good feedback on the matter," according to MHC.
"The National Sports Council (MSN), the Ministry of Youth and Sports Malaysia (KBS), and KPT has a very detailed and comprehensive system to ensure that all athletes are given the opportunity to excel in sports and academics," read the statement.
At the time of her tweet, the 19-year-old athlete had clarified that she was referring to the application via private entries instead of the UPU, the results of which were not released yet.
