Malaysia’s Gallant School System in Need of an Overhaul
Guan, Lee Hock | October 2016
Abstract
A recent controversial pronouncement by the Sultan of Johor state on the language of instruction in Malaysian schools immediately brought renewed attention to the present condition of the education system in the country. The Sultan had called for English to be further encouraged as the medium of instruction. The issue represents the tip of the iceberg of controversies over the education of the young which have plagued the country since its very beginnings.
For starters, it discouraged the newly independent Malaysia from adopting a monolingual education system as a means to unify its ethnically diverse populations into a one-nation, one-language community. Instead, decolonization politics resulted in the continuation of the British colonial state’s multilingual school system that, after independence, evolved into Malay-medium primary and secondary national schools and vernacular Chinese and Tamil primary schools. Policy makers such as the pioneering educationist Aminuddin Baki, were already aware of the potential centrifugal effect of a multilingual education in encouraging schooling to occur along ethnic lines.
The initial plan was to turn the Malay-medium national schools into the preferred education stream for all ethnic groups. Instead, various developments and exclusivist policies and programmes after 1971 accentuated ethnic segregation in the educational system. This essay highlights some key aspects of ethnic segregation in the public educational system, especially at the primary and secondary school levels.
Citation
Guan, Lee Hock. 2016. Malaysia’s Gallant School System in Need of an Overhaul. © ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute. http://hdl.handle.net/11540/9156.ISSN
2335-6677
Keywords
Development Planning
Development Research
Technology Development
Aid And Development
Asian Development Bank
Comprehensive Development Framework
Development Cooperation
Development Management
Development Planning
Development Strategies
Development Research
Green revolution
Development strategy
Development models
Economic development
New technology
Rural planning
Aid coordination
Industrial projects
Infrastructure projects
Natural resources policy
Educational development
Absorptive capacity
Tourism policy
Development strategy
Rural planning
Regional development bank
Project finance
Strategic planning
Infrastructure projects
Government programs
Public finance
Public enterprises
Development
Economics
Development In East Asia
Development Planning
Development Research
Technology Development
Aid And Development
Asian Development Bank
Comprehensive Development Framework
Development Cooperation
Development Management
Development Planning
Development Strategies
Development strategy
Development models
Economic development
New technology
Rural planning
Aid coordination
Industrial projects
Infrastructure projects
Natural resources policy
Educational development
Absorptive capacity
Economic development projects
Economic forecasting
Economic development projects
Municipal government
Technology transfer
Exchanges of patents and technical information
Technical education
Technology
Communication in rural development
Communication in community development
Economic development projects
Development banks
Economic forecasting
Environmental auditing
Cumulative effects assessment
Human rights and globalization
Transfer Technocracy
Absorptive capacity
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Citable URI
http://hdl.handle.net/11540/9156Metadata
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