THE Government must recognise and offer scholarships to students who achieve excellent results or risk losing them to other countries, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department S.K. Devamany was reported as saying in Malaysia Nanban.

It must ensure that these outstanding students are given the necessary scholarships so that they will return to work in this country, he said.

In the past, many outstanding students who failed to obtain scholarships managed to get funding from other countries, he said. Currently, many of them are working in those countries and that was a loss for Malaysia in its professional workforce.

He said that MIC, through its president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu, would continue to pressure the Government to ensure that more Indian students are given scholarships to pursue higher education.

He was speaking to reporters after attending a function to honour students of Sri Murugan Centre in Perak who achieved outstanding results in their UPSR, SPM and STPM examinations last year.