A general view of Harvard University's Kirkland House. — AFP pic

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 20 — Malaysian teenager Eleasha Chew has been accepted into Harvard University, the first to get into the Ivy League institution in three years.

The 19-year-old, a former student at the St George’s Girls School in Penang, is to be admitted Harvard College’s Early Action programme for the class of 2018, The Star Online news portal reported today.

Dr Goh Cheng Teik, who heads the selection panel that interviews students for undergraduate admission into Harvard, described Chew as “extremely intelligent” in a phone interview with The Star.

According to the news portal, Chew is also very active in theatre and community service.

The last Malaysian who succeeded in entering the highly-ranked American university was former SMK Damansara Jaya student, Avinaash Subramaniam, in 2010, The Star Online reported.

Malaysia’s overall standard of education, however, has been a touchy subject in recent years.

In a recent global assessment examination, Malaysian 15-year-olds were shown to be trailing far behind their regional peers in math and science subjects, as well as in reading.

In a news conference tonight, the opposition Pakatan Rakyat leaders urged Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to convene an emergency sitting of Parliament in January to discuss the countrý’s declining education standard, among a raft of other key issues they argued would impact the country’s economic future.