The Relationship Between
Education and Politics in
Malaysia
By
Norazura Abdollah
Nur Harizah Mohd faiz
Nurhashimah Mohamad Hashim
Wan Nuruljannah Wan Ismail Sahaimi
EDUCATION IN
MALAYSIA
PREPARED BY;
NORAZURA BT ABDOLLAH
Malaysia educational system is highly
centralised, particularly for primary and
secondary school,
 The state and local governments having
little say in the curriculum or other major
aspects of education.
 Standardised tests are common feature.
 obtained from government sponsored
schools, private schools or through home
schooling.

Education in Malaysia broadly
consists of a set of stages:
Pre- school
 Primary education
 Secondary education
 Tertiary education
 postgraduate

Pre-school
The government has no formal preschool
curriculum for pre- schoolers except a
formal mandatory training and certification
to principals and teachers before they can
operate a pre-school.
 Attendance in a pre-school programme is
not universal & generally only affluent
families can afford to send their children to
private pre-schools.

Primary Education
Consists of six years of education (Year 1
to Year 6)
 (1998- 2000) PTS was administered to
Year 3 students but was removed from
2001 onwards.
 Year 6 students in national schools are
required to undergo a standardized test ;
UPSR.

The Primary Education System is
divided into :
 National
school - SK
 Vernacular schools -SRJK (C) and
SRJK (T)
SECONDARY EDUCATION
Consists of 5 years of schooling referred
to as form 1 to form 5.
 Form 3 – PMR formerly known as SRP
 Form 5 - SPM

Shortly after the release of the 2005 SPM results
in March 2006, the Education Ministry announced it was
considering reforming the SPM system due to
what was perceived as over-emphasis on As
“The
rat race now begins at Standard 6 with the UPSR, with the
Competition resulting in parents forcing their children to attend
private tuition….”
-A former Education Director-General, Murad Mohd NoorHe also expressed disappointment at the occurrence of
students taking 15
Or 16 subjects for the SPM, calling it ‘UNNECESSARY’
PRE-UNIVERSITY



FORM 6 – consists of 2 years of studies. Lower
6 and Upper 6. internationally recognize and
generally taken by those desiring to attend a
public and private universities.
Matriculation – one or two years programme run
by Ministry of Education. A race based quota is
applied on the admission
process.90%(bumiputeras) and 10%( nonbumiputeras)
Private colleges- British A Levels programme or
the equivalent of other national systems.
TERTIARY EDUCATION
PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES- are subsidised
by the government.
 UM, USM, IIUM, UKM, UMS UNIMAS,
UPM, UTM, UUM, UPSI- open to all
Malaysians
 UiTM- are restricted; bumiputras only.


PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES- Students pay full
tuition fees, most of the universities are formed
by Government Link Companies (GLC ) e.g.:
MMU, UNITEN, UTP etc.

Delocalised universities- Monash University
(Australia), Nottingham University (UK) etc.

Polytechnics- vocational, engineering
programmes, commerce programmes. Offered
diploma and certificates.
Racial quotas , a highly politicized and
controversial issues in Malaysia;
exist for university admission.
However, in 2002
the government announced a reduction
of dependence
on racial quotas, instead leaning
more towards
MERITROCRACY .
POSTGRADUATE PROGRAMMES

All public and most private universities in
Malaysia offers Master degrees either
through coursework or research
and Doctor of Philosophy Degrees through
research.
The Relationship Between
Education and Politics in
Malaysia
By
Norazura Abdollah
Nur Harizah Mohd faiz
Nurhashimah Mohamad Hashim
Wan Nuruljannah Wan Ismail Sahaimi
Educational Acts &
Reports
1951 – Present day
A Glimpse of History…

Consolidation period
 The
Barnes Report 1951
 The Abdul Razak Report 1956
 Education Ordinance 1957

Updating Period
Rahman Talib Report 1960
 Education Act 1961


Currently
 Education Act
1996
Barnes Report 1951

Aimed at abolishing vernacular schools

“In principle, we recommend the end of the
separate vernacular schools for the several
racial communities, and the replacement by a
single type of primary school common to
all…”
Abdul Razak Report 1956



Introduced after the ruling elite had acquired political
power just before Merdeka
Conducive to the growth of vernacular education
“… a national system of education acceptable to the
people of the Federation as a whole which will
satisfy the needs to promote their culture, social,
economic and political development as a nation,
having regard to the intention of making Malay the
national language of the country whilst preserving
and sustaining the growth of the language and
culture of other communities living in the country.”
Education Ordinance 1957

The fine tuned version of the recommendations of
the Abdul Razak report

Formation of a single system of national education

Recognition of the eventual objective of making
Bahasa Malaysia the main medium of instruction

Commencement of a Malaysia-orientated curriculum

Conception of a single system of evaluation for all
Rahman Talib Report 1960

1960’s education minister who headed a
committee to:
“review the education policy set out in the
Abdul Razak Report 1956… in particular its
implementation so far and for the future…”
Education Act 1961

Stress on 3R basic education . reading, writing and
arithmetic

Stress on a strong spiritual education and the desired
elements of discipline

Stress on a Malaysian curriculum

Upper secondary education of two streams, academic
and vocational

Opportunity to continue education from 9 years to 11
years

Facilitation of education management procedures to
improve the overall quality of education
Education Act 1996
Came into force in 1997, replacing the
1961 Act
 Stress on science and technology


“[The world now is] a world that is highly
competitive and globalised, arising from the
impact of the rapid development in science,
technology and information.”
Content highlights...

The national education system is designed to
produce world-class education from the
aspect of quality to achieve the nation’s
aspirations

The National Education Policy (NEP)
becomes the base for the national education
policy

Duration of primary education is between 5
and 7 years

Pre-school education is part of the national
education system

Technical and polytechnic education are
upgraded

Allocations are made for the supervision of
private education
Effect on education after
the NEP –
New Economic Policy
The Quota System

The quota system has been the concrete
form of the national education policy

In 2003 the quota system was removed
and replaced by…
What is meritocracy?
mer·i·toc·ra·cy (n). pl. mer·i·toc·ra·cies
A system in which advancement is
based on individual ability or
achievement
(from: dictionary.com)
Hot Issue…
What is your opinion on
The Quota System
Vs
Meritocracy
ANNUAL
BUDGET
2007
ANNUAL BUDGET (2007)
EDUCATION
21%
(RM 34.4 billion)
ACQUISITION
OF
KNOWLEDGE
NURTURING
INNOVATION
PERSONAL
BENEFITS
YEAR SIX STUDENT
Increased monthly allowance for poor
primary pupils from RM30 to RM50
 Two new MRSMs and existing MRSM
facilities upgraded (RM90mil)
 Scholarships for potential athletes

FORM TWO STUDENT
No exam fees next year (UPSR, PMR,
SPM and STPM)
 Increased monthly allowance for poor
secondary students from RM50 to
RM70
 Chinese and Tamil taught as subjects
in 220 schools next year
 More computers (RM288mil) and
books in schools

FORM FIVE STUDENT

More scholarships
For poor students with at least 10 1As in SPM
 For critical subjects

More polytechnics and community
colleges (RM450mil)
 Better facilities in existing universities
(RM195mil)

NON-GRADUATE TEACHER
More housing for teachers (67 new
projects)
 Eligible for professional development
programmes (RM838mil)
 Tax rebate for book purchases up to
RM1,000 annually

TRAINEE TEACHER
220 new primary and secondary schools
to teach in (RM1bil)
 Specialised schools to teach in

Science and technology
 Technical and vocational
 Language and arts
 Sports


Opportunities to specialise in special
education
UNEMPLOYED GRADUATE

More opportunities to upgrade industry
skills via
Securities Commission’s Capital Market
Training Scheme (1,000 places annually)
 Training by established ICT companies
 Job Camp programme by MDeC (1,000 places
annually)

Programme to Enhance Professionalism
(5,000 places annually)
 Six new training institutions under Human
Resource Ministry (RM148mil)
 MARA training programmes (RM214mil)

GENERAL
BENEFITS

More scholarships to
pursue critical
courses such as
science, pharmacy,
medicine and
engineering at
graduate and postgraduate levels in
both local and foreign
universities.

Terengganu &
Kelantan will get
their own
universities. More
polytechnics &
community colleges
will be built and
upgraded. Existing
universities will
receive RM195mil
for the upgrading of
their facilities.

RM6.7bil is allocated
for primary education
and RM6.2bil for
secondary education
to fund operational
and development
expenditure.

22 new primary and
secondary schools to
be opened next year,
with the construction
of an additional 198
schools, including
fully residential
secondary schools.

RM288mil is
allocated under the
Bestari school
programme to equip
schools with more
computers.

Chinese will be taught
as a full subject in 150
national primary and
secondary schools
while Tamil as a full
subject will be taught
in 70 schools from the
beginning of 2007.
QUANTITATIVE vs
QUALITATIVE