Está en la página 1de 7

Educational Development

in Malaysia:
Meeting the Challenges
of National Integration

Seminar presented by

Associate Professor Anna Christina Abdullah

INTRODUCTION Population (26,640,200)


• Malaysia occupies the • Malaysia - multi-ethnic population
southernmost peninsula of
Southeast Asia and the northern consisting of native (bumiputera)
one-third of Borneo. and ‘immigrant’ (non-bumiputera)
• It became a nation on ethnic groups.
September 16, 1963 when Sabah • Malays - main indigenous ethnic
and Sarawak joined Malaya
which had earlier gained group. The main ‘immigrant’ groups
independence from the British on -Chinese and Indians
August 31, 1957 to form a single • Bumiputeras 65.1% (2000).
federation.
• Malaysia has a democratically • Chinese 26.0 %
elected government with a • Indians 7.7 %
constitutional monarch.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF Primitive and Feudal Period


EDUCATION IN MALAYSIA (35,000BCE-1786)
• The first human beings arrived in East Malaysia around
35,000BCE and in West Malaysia around 25,000BCE.
• On the peninsula, the aboriginal people are collectively
known as the Orang Asli.
• The modern Malays are the descendents of the
Deutero-Malays – an amalgam of many early ethnic
groups including Indians, Chinese, Siamese, Arabs, and
Proto-Malays. During the 13th century, a great maritime
kingdom called Srivijaya emerged in the Malay
Archipelago. However, as other ports emerged towards
the end of the 13th century, Srivijaya’s influence
declined and paved the way for the Malays to emerge
as the dominant power in the Malay Archipelago.
• Malacca was founded in 1400 by Parameswara, a
prince from Sumatra.The strategic location of the port
of Malacca at the narrowest part of the Straits of
Malacca allowed it to control the lucrative spice trade.
Revenue from port taxes and services greatly enriched
Malacca. Muslim traders from Arabia and India brought
Islam to Malacca. Soon after establishing his kingdom,
Parameswara converted from Hinduism to Islam

1
Primitive and Feudal Period
(35,000BCE-1786)
• Malacca fell to the Portuguese in 1511. • Education during this period was typical
of feudal societies. Only members of the
• The Dutch defeated the Portuguese royalty and nobility had the benefit of
and conquered Malacca in 1641 formal education that prepared them
for ruling the masses.
• Education for the rest of society was
largely of an informal nature involving
• After that it was the British who the passing down of traditional life skills
colonized all of Malaysia. from generation to generation.
• However, the Islamic clergy established
a small number of Qur’anic schools or
pondok for the purpose of religious
education.

The British colonial period Colonial period can be divided into 3 phases:
(1786-1957)
• Captain Francis Light of the British East India
Company convinced the Sultan of Kedah to
allow them to build a fort in Penang, an island
• 1786 – 1941
off the northwestern coast of the Malay
Peninsula in 1786. Laissez faire (divide and rule)
• Penang, Malacca, and Singapore collectively
came to be known as the Straits Settlements.
• The main concern of the British was to maintain
peace and order to facilitate the exploitation
of the economic resources of Malaysia, • 1941- 1945 (Japanese occupation)
especially tin and rubber.
• The British encouraged mass immigration of
workers from China and India to work in the tin
mines and rubber plantations respectively.
Rapid urban development took place during • 1945 – 1957 (after Japanese
the booming colonial economy.
• The Malays remained in rural areas;the towns occupation)
were dominated by the Chinese and a minority
of Indians who eventually controlled commerce
and industry.

1786-1941: laissez faire • The Chinese community actively established


• During the colonial period, four types of schools their own schools and imported curricula,
existed – English schools where English was used teachers and textbooks from China.
as the medium of instruction and three types of • The Indians, on the other hand, were left at the
vernacular schools, viz., Malay, Chinese and
Indian. mercy of the rubber plantation owners.
Plantation owners who built schools for the
• Christian missionary groups also established children of their workers only saw it fit to provide
English schools in the major towns. English a rudimentary form of terminal primary
education was the best as it consisted of both education in dilapidated buildings.
primary and secondary levels and students
could further their education until university • The best education was available in English
level in England or at the Raffles College in schools. More non-natives were able to benefit
Singapore. from English schools than natives.
• The quality of Malay, Chinese and Indian
• Although the colonial government did not feel vernacular schools was generally poor and the
the need to build schools for the masses, for the
Malays at least, the British felt some form of curricula focused on their respective
obligation to provide a basic form of education motherlands. Thus, the population became
designed to teach them to be better able to divided, and remained so for more than 150
carry on in subsistence farming and fishery as years.
well as to develop habits of punctuality and
good behavior in order that they not disturb the
peace

2
1941-1945. Japanese occupation 1946-1957. After the Japanese
of Malaysia Occupation
• too brief to have had much • the British propose formation of Malayan
impact on education in Union.
• The Cheeseman Plan, which
Malaysia. advocated primary and secondary
education in the four existing languages
• the defeat of the British at the – English, Malay, Chinese and Tamil.
hands of Asians shattered the • Chinese and Tamil language teaching
were to be made available in the
myth of white superiority and English schools, and at the same time
led to a surge of nationalism in the teaching of English was to be made
compulsory in all vernacular schools.
colonial Malaysia.

• Malay nationalists organized mass The Barnes Report (Malaya 1951a)


protests against the Malayan Union • recommended that all existing schools should
and demanded independence. be transformed into National schools in which
children of the various ethnic groups would be
taught through the medium of Malay and
English.
• Not surprisingly, the Chinese saw the Barnes
• The Cheeseman proposal was Committee proposal as an attempt to eliminate
abandoned in 1949 with the demise their languages and cultural identities and
protested vehemently against it.
of the Malayan Union. • To appease the Chinese, another committee
called the Fenn-Wu Committee was formed in
1951. It was sympathetic towards Chinese
vernacular education and recommended a
bilingual policy where Malay and English would
• The Barnes Committee was set up in be used as media of instruction, but at the
1950 to look into reforming and same time provisions would be made for the
learning of Chinese and Tamil in schools.
integrating the educational system.

The Report of the Central Advisory


Early Independence (1957-1970)
Committee (Malaya 1951b)
• took into consideration the collective • The Razak Report and the Education Ordinance
of 1957.
wisdom of the Barnes and Fenn-Wu The Report of the Education Committee, 1956
committees. (Malaya 1956), popularly known as the Razak
Report was the government’s educational
• Its recommendations formed the basis blueprint for post-independence Malaysia to
for the Education Ordinance of 1952 create a national education system aimed at
in which a bilingual national system of fostering national integration. The Razak Report
resulted in Malaysia’s first legislation on
education with a common curriculum education as an independent nation – the
was established based on only one Education Ordinance of 1957.
type of school – the National School. • There are two major differences between the
education ordinances of 1952 and 1957. Under
• Malay and English were placed on an the former, Chinese and Tamil vernacular
equal footing as media of instruction primary schools existed outside the national
education system but under the latter, such
in the national school but Tamil and schools were integrated within the national
Chinese were taught as third education system as national type primary
schools. Thus, the 1957 Ordinance favoured the
languages. interests of the non-bumiputeras more than the
1952 Ordinance.

3
The Rahman Talib Report and the Socio-Economic Reengineering
Education Act of 1961 Era (1970-1990)
• Committee set up to review • Non-bumiputera domination of the
implementation of the Razak Report. economy accelerated after
• little progress in implementing the use of independence resulting in increasing inter-
the Malay language as the main medium ethnic tensions which culminated in the
of instruction in Malaysian schools and violent inter-racial riots of May 13, 1969.
phasing out English-medium schools. • The government launched a 20-year plan
• The Report of the Education Review in 1970 called the New Economic Policy
Committee, 1960 (Malaya, 1960) resulted (NEP) to regulate and restructure the
in the Education Act of 1961. economy. In particular, ownership of
• The most significant outcome of the equity capital of bumiputeras, non-
Education Act of 1961 was that a definite bumiputeras and foreigners would
timetable was set to phase out English- conform to a ratio of 30:40:30.
medium schools and convert • In the restructuring of the corporate sector,
government-aided Chinese-medium the share capital of bumiputeras
secondary schools into Bahasa Melayu- increased from 3 percent in 1970 to 18.5
medium secondary schools. percent in 1985 and 20.3 percent in 1990.

Table 1: Key milestones in the implementation


Impact on educational policies of the Bahasa Malaysia policy
• A racial quota system was set 1970 The phased conversion of English-medium national type
up for entry in tertiary primary schools to Bahasa Malaysia-medium national type
primary schools was started in the first year of primary school
education. Other preferential
practices - construction of elite 1975 The conversion of English-medium national type primary
schools to Bahasa Malaysia-medium national type primary
fully residential schools for schools was completed
bumiputeras and the near total 1976 The phased conversion of vernacular and English national type
bumiputera monopoly of secondary schools to Bahasa Malaysia-medium national type
secondary schools was started in the first year of secondary
government scholarships. school

• During this period the national 1981 The conversion of vernacular and English national type
secondary schools to Bahasa Malaysia-medium national type
language policy laid down by secondary schools was completed.The use of Bahasa Malaysia
the Rahman Talib Report was as the medium of instruction in the first year of all university
degree programmes was started.
implemented without any
further delay; nor was it resisted 1983 The use of Bahasa Malaysia as the medium of instruction in
Form 6 was completed.
by the non-bumiputeras 1985 The use of Bahasa Malaysia as the medium of instruction in
Malaysian universities was completed

The Report of the Cabinet Committee to Liberalization and Globalization Era (1990-the
Review Educational Policy (1979). present)
• to recommend steps to improve the • Although the aim of carving out a 30
implementation of the Education Act of 1961. In
particular, the Committee was charged with percent share of the economy for the
reviewing the existing primary and secondary bumiputeras by 1990 was far from
school curricula.
being achieved, the government
• The Mahathir Report:
• primary school curriculum too content-heavy;
decided that enough momentum
unbalanced development of the individual had been built up to justify the easing
child. More attention to the development of of government regulation of the
basic literacy and competency skills and moral
and spiritual values. economy.
• The New Primary School Curriculum, now called
the Integrated Primary School Curriculum, was
introduced in 1982 as a pilot project in 302 • In 1991, the National Development
schools. In 1983 KBSR was implemented Policy (NDP) was launched which
nationwide. To maintain curriculum continuity
the Integrated Secondary School Curriculum allowed for a limited liberalization of
was pilot tested in 1988 and implemented the economy.
nation-wide in 1989.

4
LEVELS OF EDUCATION
Educational Acts…
• Malaysia has a centralized system of education.
Until recently, overall control of the entire
• Two major pieces of educational education system was in the hands of the
legislation were passed in 1996. The Education Minister who is ultimately answerable to
most important impact of the the Prime Minister.
Education Act of 1996 was to
incorporate preschool education • Since March 27, 2004, however, the Education
Ministry has been split into two – the revamped
within the national education system. Ministry of Education which encompasses most of
the original divisions and departments, and the
Ministry of Higher Education.
• The Private Higher Educational
Institution (PHEI) Act which was also • The Ministry of Higher Education oversees the
passed in 1996 aimed to increase Institutes of Higher Education Management
private sector participation in tertiary Division, the Polytechnics and Community
education. The PHEI Act allows the Colleges Management Division, the National
private sector to establish degree Accreditation Board, the Tunku Abdul Rahman
Foundation as well as 17 universities and university
awarding institutions. It also allows colleges.
foreign universities to set up branch
campuses in Malaysia.

Structure and Curriculum


Preschool Education
• Malaysia’s current system of • Preschool education is offered both
education can be described as a by government agencies and the
private sector.
P-13 system, i.e. 13 points or year
levels of education preceding • All preschool centres have to abide
by the curriculum guidelines set by the
university education. Ministry of Education under the
• The P-13 system is sub-divided into Education Act of 1996.
6-3-2-2 levels consisting of 6 years of • Although Malaysia has achieved near
primary schooling, 3 years of lower universal primary education
secondary education, 2 years of (exceeding 96 %), the preschool
upper secondary education and 2 enrolment rate at 64 %. However, it is
envisaged that this will increase to
years of pre-university education. 95% by the year 2010. As might be
• Under the Education Act of 1996, pre- expected, the participation rate in
school education of children of age rural areas is lower than that in urban
5+ has been incorporated within the areas.
national system of education.

Primary School Education Secondary School Education


• Only in 2003 that Malaysia implemented a • learners are streamed into three types of lower
policy of compulsory primary education. The secondary schools, regular day schools, fully
enrollment rate for primary education residential schools, and MARA Junior Science
increased steadily from 93 % in 1991, 94 % in Colleges. Fully residential schools and MARA
1992, 95 % in 1994 and 96 % in 1995 and is Junior Science Colleges are elite schools
expected to reach 99 % by 2010. reserved largely for bumiputera students.
• Lower secondary education for most students
• The primary education system is divided into the lasts three years. However, all students from the
national schools (Sekolah Kebangsaan or SK) SJKC and SJKT, apart from those who achieve
and vernacular or national type schools excellent results in Bahasa Malaysia in the UPSR,
(Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan or SJK). The medium are retained in ‘Remove’ Classes for a year
of instruction in the SKs is Malay. Chinese before commencing secondary schooling.
vernacular schools or SJKC conduct classes in • Entry into upper secondary education depends
Mandarin and Indian vernacular schools or SJKT on the learners’ performance in the PMR. Upper
use Tamil. secondary education is divided into three
streams – the academic, technical and
• Recent attempts to establish vision schools vocational streams. There are four kinds of
(Sekolah Wawasan). Vision schools share upper secondary schools in the academic
facilities among two or more national and stream – regular day schools, fully residential
national type schools, ostensibly to encourage schools, Science Secondary Schools and MARA
closer inter-ethnic interaction. Junior Science Colleges.

5
Post-Secondary/Tertiary Education.
• The vocational stream offers practical training
in trade skills for less academically-inclined
learners. The technical stream, on the other • Post-secondary education is divided into
hand, provides training in highly specialised college, polytechnic and pre-university
technical skills. education. Students who only wish to
• At the end of the two years of upper secondary pursue their studies up to the certificate
education, students sit for the SPM, a national and diploma levels enter Teacher
examination equivalent to the British General Education Colleges, Polytechnics, and the
Certificate of Secondary Education.
Tunku Abdul Rahman College where
professional courses are offered.
• In Malaysia’s centralized educational system, all
secondary school students follow the KBSM
curriculum. Under the previous secondary • STPM and matriculation serve as two
school curriculum, pupils were streamed into parallel filters for university entrance. The
science and arts streams, whereby they had to two systems of examinations are not
select more or less preset science or arts subject equivalent as the matriculation program is
packages. internally examined by the individual
matriculation colleges while the STPM is
• Under KBSM, pupils are allowed to select examined according to a central
between two to four elective subjects from a standardized system.
minimum of two elective packages: Humanities,
Vocational and Technological, Science and
Islamic Studies.

ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSION Sponsored mobility


• Out of necessity, the government was forced to
• National Integration and Equity suspend meritocracy in 1970 and implement a
Issues. Malaysia has made preferential education selection policy in favour
of Malays and other bumiputeras to enable the
tremendous strides in terms of bumiputeras to catch up economically with the
non-bumiputeras.
creating an integrated national • The Malays have made tremendous strides in
system of education from the education and a vibrant professional,
managerial and entrepreneurial bumiputera
chaotic legacy of the British class has emerged.
colonial administration. • Nevertheless, the progress made in education
amongst the bumiputeras has been uneven.
• At the same time, Malaysia’s The drop-out rate from primary schools for the
Orang Asli and minority bumiputera
record in providing universal communities in Sabah and Sarawak stands at a
staggering 62% against the national average of
access to education regardless 3.1% in 1995 (Ministry of Education, 2001).
of social and cultural
background is good.

Natives vs Non-natives Access by Gender


• On the larger question of national
integration between natives and non- • Where educational access by
natives, the national school has clearly
failed in its role as the catalyst for national
gender is concerned, Malaysia
integration as it is only attended by 2 % of has more than achieved
the Chinese school-going population.
• Worse still, the preferential educational gender parity in educational
policy has created a dual meritocratic
carriageway where entrance into choice
access.
university programs is apparently made
easier for bumiputeras through the • The participation of males
matriculation track while non-bumiputeras
have to take the more challenging route.
decreases as they move up
• The dual meritocratic system is also the educational ladder until
evident in the sharp dichotomy that exists
in enrolment in public and private HEIs females account for more than
where the former is attended mainly by
bumiputeras and the latter by non-
60% of the enrollment in public
bumiputeras. universities.

6
Questions or comments……………….

ARIGATO
GOZAIMASU

THANK YOU FOR YOUR


KIND ATTENTION

También podría gustarte