DEMOCRATIZATION OF

EDUCATION

Introduction
The failure to obtain access to quality and
equal education has limited the opportunity
for the people in the rural areas to advance in
economic and social fields. This has widen the
gap between rural and urban communities in
terms of lifestyle.
Thus, democratization of education was
emphasized to narrow the education gap
between urban and rural areas and also to
provide equal educational opportunities for
all Malaysians, irrespective of gender and
race.

Democratization in
education is
providing opportunities for everyone
to acquire success in education and
make education as an agent to
increase the success and quality of
life (Dewey,1966).
equal rights in terms of education
opportunities (Ahmad Fauzi, 1997)

Democratization of education
policies

Education at the basic level is compulsory.

Implementation of vernacular schools.
Education for 13 years.
Technical/vocational
schools,
boarding,
special education, private and religious
schools.
Long distance education in higher education.
Education for life (pendidikan sepanjang
hayat).

Democratization in
education
Equal rights
Equal and same facilities for every
schools
Vision schools
Equal opportunities in education
Wide opportunities
Development of human resources

The focus in democratization in

education
Eradicate illiteracy (Basmi buta
huruf)
Universal education
Infrastructure
Adequate trained teachers
Pre-school for all

Challenges to be faced
Infrastructure
Complete and adequate for all the students.
Schools basic needs
Such as text books, library, number of classes
and etc
Workforce
Number of graduate and non-graduate
teachers

Investment strategies in education

field
Basic education should be provided to all
children and adults according to the
resources available. In the long term, formal
education system and informal should be
developed at all levels of education.
To increase the productivity and to expand
the social equity, educational opportunities
should be provided regardless of gender,
ethnic
background
and
socioeconomic
status.

Investment strategies in education

field
The education system should seek to
improve internal efficiency in management.
Distribution and the usage of existing
resources to improve the quantity and
quality of education.
Education should be linked to the work and
the environment in order to increase the
quantity and quality of education, knowledge
and skills necessary for the development of
economic, social and others.

World Banks Focus in

education
Basic education
Compulsory education for all
Efficiency in the management
Distribution of resources
Job market requirements (keperluan dengan
pasaran kerja)

National Education

Various stages (primary, secondary, higher)

The same curriculum (KSSR)
Establishment of private school
Increase the number of students to the university
Private education
Education for all
Allocation of financial resources
Universal education
Increase the number of teachers and classes
World-Class Education
Continuing education
Democratization of education
Quality education

Reports and Analysis on National

Education Achievement
1. Access of education
2. Quality of Education
3. Equity in education
4. Building unity through education
5. Maximising efficiency

Access to Education
Ensuring all children in Malaysia have
access to the educational opportunities
provided in the country.
Two elements in access:
- Getting students into seats in schools
- Requires students to remain in school
long enough to achieve a minimum
level of
schooling.

Comparison of achievement in
school enrolment rate
Since independence

2011

- Achieved near-universal
-Very few child had access
to education
enrolment at primary
-Half of the population had
school (96%)
- Attrition rate ( the
never had any formal
schooling
percentage of students
-6% had received secondary
who drop out of primary
level schooling
school): 3% (1989)
-1% attained a post0.2% (2011)
- Enrolment rates at lower
secondary education
secondary level (91%)
- Upper secondary level:
45% (1980) 81% (2013)
- Preschool education: 67%
(2009) 77% (2011)

 Youth literacy rate: 88% (1980)

99%
Adult literacy rate: 70% 92%
Adult population (15 years above)
with no schooling: 60% (1950)
10% (2010)
Complete at least secondary school:
7% (1950) 75% (2010)

Why it has improve?

Govt. increased commitment to financially supporting
the
development
and
growth
of all
school
communities.
Hundreds of millions of ringgit spent towards
programmes specifically designed to help economically
disadvantaged students.
These programmes include:
-students nutritional needs [the Supplementary Food
Programme or Rancangan Makanan Tambahan
(RMT)]
-reduce the financial burden of schooling on parents
(KWAPM-Kumpulan Wang Amanah Pelajar Miskin).
Programmes for students with special needs and
dedicated Orang Asli and Penan primary schools.

Areas of concern
While access to basic education is strong, the
2011 UNESCO review on Malaysian education
policy highlighted a concern that primary
education enrolment has not continued to
grow, in contrast with the most developed
countries in the region
The UNESCO review also noted that upper
secondary participation rates, while showing a
big improvement from several decades past,
remain lower than that of developed
regional peers
more effort needs to be made to enrol the 5-10%
hardest-to-reach population of children.

Quality of Education
National
examination
results
shows student performance has been
improving steadily.
Malaysias performance in TIMSS
shows student performance has
fallen from 1999 to 2007
PISA (2001) Malaysia ranked in
bottom third of 74 participating
countries, below the international
and OECD average.

National Examination
Three national examinations (UPSR,
PMR, SPM) show fairly constant and
even improving outcomes
Two common measures used to assess
outcomes:
- Grade Point Average/ Gred Purata
Sekolah (GPS)
- Percentage of students achieving
passing and excellent results

Malaysias performance in TIMSS

(Trends in International Mathematics & Science Study)

An
international
assessment
based
on
Mathematics and Science curricula
Assesses pupils in Grade 4 (Year 4) and Grade 8
(Form 2) in content(ex. Algebra/geometry) and
cognitive skills (ex. Thinking processes of
knowing, applying and reasoning)
First administered in 1995
Conducted every four years
Malaysia first participated in 1999, only with
form 2 pupils

PISA (Programme for International

Student Assessment)
Coordinated by the OECD (Organisation for
Economic Co-operation & Development)
Conducted every three years
Aims to evaluate proficiency in Reading,
Mathematics and Science in students aged 15
years old.
Focus is not on curriculum content, but on
students ability to apply their knowledge
in real-word setting.
74 countries took part in the assessment in 2009
Malaysia first participated in 2010

National examination and international

assessments suggest variance in standard
There is a lack of alignment between the
national and international assessments in
terms of how standards are defined.
These discrepancies go some way toward
explaining the mismatch between the
trends seen in the national examinations
and those revealed in the international
assessments.

Student completion rates for one

cohort
Tracking the path of the cohort of
students entering public schools in Year
1 (Year 2000), Form Five in (Year 2010)
36% of this cohort are either no longer
enrolled in school, or have failed to
achieve minimum standards in SPM
examinations for core subjects (BM, BI,
Math, Sci, History, and Moral/Islamic Ed.)

Public perception of quality of

education outcomes
Industry perspectives:
Interviews conducted with employers and
industry leaders widespread concern over the
extent to which students are being equipped with
the right skills to succeed in modern society .
Employers are concerned about:
(i) the lack of higher-order thinking skills
(problem solving and creative thinking)
(ii) the level of graduates English proficiency
(concern of the private sector)

Student perspectives:
The students optimistic.
A recent survey (2011) of approximately
23,000 school-going children (Year 6,
Form 2 & 4) shows that they are
optimistic about the education they are
receiving.
For instance, 95% of students agreed or
strongly agreed that their education
was helping them develop the right set
of life skills.

Public opinion polls:

Broader public opinion appears to be mixed.
A public opinion poll (December 2004) conducted
by the Merdeka Centre on a sample of 850
Malaysians (aged 16 to 30) found that the majority
of them (68% of Indians, 58% of Chinese, and 50%
of Malays) felt that the education they received
had prepared them inadequately for the
challenges of living and working in todays society.
In contrast, a 2011 public survey of 1,800
Malaysians indicated that overall, 55% of them
believed that the Malaysian education system was
comparable in standards to those of developed
countries, and 35% believed that it was better.

Holistic development of
students
As part of its objective of providing a balanced
education, the Ministry recognises the importance of
understanding its performance in supporting students
spiritual, emotional, and physical development.
To that end, the three best available sources of data
on this issue were examined:
(i) schools scores on student outcome
(kemenjadian murid) as part of the annual school quality
self-assessment exercise;
(ii) the 2011 results of targeted school inspections on
student discipline
(iii) the percentage of students involved in
disciplinary cases in 2011.

i. Schools scores on student

outcome
Shows positive self-evaluation scores
Schools are required to conduct a selfassessment using the Standard of Quality
Education Malaysia, or Standard Kualiti
Pendidikan Malaysia (SKPM) on 5
dimensions related to school quality:
-leadership and direction,
-organisational administration,
-administration of students welfare,
-curricular and co-curricular activities,
-teaching and learning, and student outcomes

 For the last dimension, the schools

consider both academic and nonacademic outcomes including cocurricular participation and the
attitudes, behaviours, and moral
values demonstrated by students at
school.
The dimension is graded on a 15
point scale (15 best rating)

Results are fairly positive:

76% of primary schools rated
themselves at 10 points or higher, as
compared to 44% at the secondary
level.
Only 1% of primary and secondary
schools reported a rating of less than
5 points.

ii. Inspections on student discipline

( not major issue)
In 2011, one of these targeted
inspections looked at the issue of
student discipline in 51 schools
nationwide
(75%
were
primary
schools).
Two elements were examined:
- student discipline during lessons
- student behaviour outside of the
classroom.

 On a scale of 1 to 6 (1 Very Weak, 6

Excellent)
JNJK inspectors rated overall student
discipline at level 4, potential to
improve.
No discernible differences across
urban and rural primary schools.
Urban secondary schools (level 3)
more issues regarding discipline.

 Students at urban secondary schools

less likely to take care of school
property, have lower self-confidence,
less likely to assist their peers, or act
in a polite and respectful manner.

The percentage of students involved

in disciplinary cases
Every school is required to report the
number of students involved in
disciplinary cases each year.
Cases range from minor issues (ex.
tardiness), to serious ones (ex.
criminal activity).
Only a very small percentage of
students, 2%, posed discipline
problems for their schools.

Equity in Education
There are significant variations in outcomes
in Malaysia across states, districts,
schools, socio-economic class, and
gender.
Socio-economic class remains the largest
driver of student outcomes in Malaysia.
It is important that the education system
seeks to combat the fact that a childs
academic performance is often largely
dependent on family income.

Achievement gaps exist between

and within states across Malaysia

Achievement gap between rural and

urban schools is narrowing over time

Achievement gaps between national and

National-type schools are narrowing over time

The Lost Boys issue: the gender

gap is widening

Socio-economic status continues to have a

large impact on student performance

Gap in student performance persists

between private and public schools
Private schools using the national curriculum
present another gap in equity (scored 6% higher
than public schools at SPM)
Reasons:
better learning environment,
self-selecting nature of these schools (more
economically advantaged students)
Enrolment in private schools using the national
curriculum currently accounts only 1% of total
student numbers, enrolment is increasing as
average household income levels rise.

Building unity through Education

Malaysias unique diversityethnic, religious,
and culturalhas always been its greatest
strength, and its greatest challenge.
Schools have a unique potential to be a place to
foster unity.
The challenge is that to date, the system has
struggled to measure unity in a systematic
manner.
Data suggests that student and teacher diversity
in National schools has decreased, although
there is still a fair degree of interactivity across
ethnicities inside and outside the classroom.

Range of schooling options creating

ethnically homogeneous environments

Teacher diversity in schools

The teacher population in SKs is becoming less
diverse and less representative of the
national population.
In 2001, 78% of the teachers across all National
schools were Bumiputera, and this number rose
to 81% in 2011.
Indian teachers remained fairly consistent at 5%,
Chinese teachers dropped from 17% to 14%.
Others category remained close to zero
percent.

JNJK school inspections indicate a

good level of unity
JNJK conducted an inspection of 20 schools
in 2011, 55% of which were primary schools.
The inspectors looked at two elements:
-the extent to which schools fostered
unity among students (ex. mixed seating in the
classroom, and how students themselves demonstrated unity, were
students interacting across ethnicities inside and outside of the
classroom setting)

-whether student participation in cocurricular clubs was ethnicity-based.

 The results:
-student interactions indicated a good level
of unity: there were high levels of interaction
between ethnicities inside and outside of the
classroom, and most co-curricular activities
comprised a diverse student group.

-Schools
with
less
diverse
student
populations needs to take more active
measures to create opportunities for
students to interact with those of different
ethnicities, religion and cultures.

Maximizing efficiency
The Ministry has consistently directed
significant
resources
towards
developing the education system.
In 2011, Malaysias expenditure, at
3.8% of GDP, is higher than the OECD
average of 3.4% of GDP.
So, Malaysia may not be getting the
highest rate of return on its
investments in education.

Malaysias basic education

expenditure is relatively high
In 2011, Malaysias basic education
expenditure was RM37 billion.
This amount represents 16% of the
total 2012 federal budgetthe
single largest share among ministries.
Another RM12 billion is allocated to
MOHE and other ministries that
provide education-related services.

Three different measures of expenditure:

i. expenditure as a percentage of GDP
ii. percentage of total government
spending ( account for expenditure
relative to other priorities in the
country / differences in economic
development levels between countries)
iii. expenditure per student

i. Malaysias expenditure as a
percentage of GDP

ii. Malaysias expenditure as a percentage

of total government spending

iii. Malaysias spending per student

Higher spending has translated to

better student outcomes in terms
of access, but not necessarily in
terms of quality
Malaysia has invested significant
resources into building additional
infrastructure (rural areas) and increasing
the size of the teaching force to enable
the expansion of access to education.
This spending has successfully translated
to almost universal access to primary
education, and significant improvement in
access to secondary education.

Conclusion
1) Perform well on the access of education
2) Has mismatch between results of national
examination and international assessment
(differences in standards, misalignment in
what assessment test for)
3) Socio-economic status is still the significant
driver of variance in student outcomes
4) Student and teacher diversity in SK is
decreasing but level of interaction across
ethnicities remains robust.
5) High level of spending have not yielded the
desired impact.