Education in Malaysia

Structure of Malaysian Education

Ministry of Education [Education is responsibility of Fed. Govt]
State & Federal Territory Education Departments [Help the Fed. Govt]
Education Act of 1996 [Main legislation]

Education System
Pre-school Ages: 3-6
Primary Education Ages: 7-12
Secondary Education Ages: 13-18
Post-secondary Education
Tertiary Education
Or: Private Schools / Homeschooling

History

Sekolah Pondok, Madrasah, and other Islamic schools were the earliest schools in
Malaysia.
Secular schools came from British colonial govt
o Typically concentrated in the Straits of Peenang, Malacca, and Singapore
British govt didnt provide Malay secondary schools, so people didnt pursue higher
education until another complaints garnered malay schools.
Missionaries started schools for primary and secondary education
1957 Malaysia had a fragmented education system--- most people had never received
formal schooling and very few went to elite institutions
Razak Report & Rahman Talib Report --- Established an ambitious vision for what the
nations education system should look lie
Barnes Report vs Ordinance Report vs Fenn-Wu Report vs Razak Report
Government shifted focus into Malay national schools by the end of 1982
Literacy rate 92% for ages 15 and above in 2010

School Specialization
Primary School (National Curriculum the same)

Primary School Integrated Curriculum

Secondary School

Secondary School Integrated Curriculumm

Regular--Cluster Schools
Boarding School
Secondary Education
Technical & Vocational
SABK & SMKA [Religious Schools]
Malaysian Art Schools
Malaysian School of Sport

Form Six

Completion of Secondary Education

Take two years specialized in humanities or science
Assessed through Malaysian Higher School Certificate

Examinations

UPSR Primary School Achievement

PMR Lower Secondary Assessment
SPM Malaysian Certification of Education
SPM - Malaysian Certificate of Education (Repeat)
STAM Malaysian Higher Certificate of Religious Education
STPM Malaysian Higher School Certificate

Equitable Student Outcomes

States with more rural schools perform poorer than schools with less rural schools. The
examination gap still indicate that urban schools do significantly better
Achievement gaps between national school schools, national Chinese schools, national
Tamil schools are closing
Gender gap is increasing in Malaysia: girls are consistently outperforming boys in every
level
Equity gaps remain in socio-economic origins: Poor families less likely to perform as
well as wealthy

Ethnically Homogeneous Environment

Malaysian parents can choose where their kids go to school, thus increasing the ethnic
homogenization of schools while reducing the interaction of individuals with different
ethnic backgrounds

Education System Encouragement

Critical Thinking and Innovation

Problem-solving and reasoning
Learning capacity
Leadership Skills:
o Entrepreneurship
o Resilience
Bilingual Proficiency
Ethics and Spirituality
National Identity

Current Performance

Near Universal primary and lower secondary enrollment

Budget of 37 Bn RM (16% of total federal budget)
Students improving in national exams
Achievement gaps exist between and within states across Malaysia

Diversity of Schools
Public Primary Schools

3 levels: SK, SJK, and SJK(T)

o Different mediums of instruction
o Jointly accounts for almost 99% of total primary enrollments
Other schools such as religious schools and special education serve the remaining
students

Public Secondary School

Convergence of primary school kids from different types of backgrounds

National secondary schools (SMK) comprise of 88% of total secondary enrollments
Upon completion of lower secondary school, people can pursue technical, vocational,
sport, arts, and other schooling options

Private Schools

Operate at both primary and secondary level

Private schools can also teach national curriculum
1% of total primary enrollments and 4% of total secondary enrollments

Teacher Diversity

Teachers are becoming less diverse and less representative of the national population

Student Learning

3 Dimensions of curriculum
o Written

Developed using benchmarks from top-performing educational systems

that offer comprehensive studies of science, social science, and humanities
Emphasis on reasoning, creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship
Provides Islamic education within school for Muslim students
1 Student 1 sport
Encouraged involvement in co-curricular activities

o Taught
Skills learned go untested in national exams, so skills that are more
frequently tested are now more evident in the curriculum
Tailoring lessons to the needs of the students
o Examined
School assessment --- School tests
Central Assessment --- Written tests, project work, or oral tests
Psychometric Assessment --- Aptitude tests and a personality inventory to
assess students silks, interests, aptitude, attitude, and personality
Physical, sports, and co-curricular activities assessment --- Flexibility on
how its assessed
Geography and Demographics of Malaysia

total: 329,847 sq km
country comparison to the world: 67
land: 328,657 sq km
water: 1,190 sq km
Malay 50.1%, Chinese 22.6%, indigenous 11.8%, Indian 6.7%, other 0.7%, non-citizens
8.2% (2010 est.)
Bahasa Malaysia (official), English, Chinese (Cantonese, Mandarin, Hokkien, Hakka,
Hainan, Foochow), Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Panjabi, Thai
Muslim (official) 61.3%, Buddhist 19.8%, Christian 9.2%, Hindu 6.3%, Confucianism,
Taoism, other traditional Chinese religions 1.3%, other 0.4%, none 0.8%, unspecified 1%
(2010 est.)
30,073,353 (July 2014 est.)
urban population: 72.8% of total population (2011)
rate of urbanization: 2.49% annual rate of change (2010-15 est.)

Sources:
Kementerian Pendikan Malaysia. Federation of Malaysia, 24 Dec 2012. Web. 9 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.moe.gov.my/>
Tan Sri Dato Haji Muhyiddin bin Haji Mohd Yassin. Kementerian Pendikan Malaysia.
Federation of Malaysia, Sep. 2013. Web. 9 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.moe.gov.my/userfiles/file/PPP/Preliminary-Blueprint-Eng.pdf>
CIA World Factbook. CIA, 20 June 2014. Web. 9 Feb. 2015.
<https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/my.html>
Education Malaysia. Federation of Malaysia, 2014. Web. 9 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.educationmalaysia.gov.my/>