Dear readers, recently, I was contacted by teacher from India through my social networking, Think.com and she was asking me regarding our education system. Here’s what I’m writing.
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Thank you for your wonderful greetings! Sure, it is my pleasure to introduce you our education system in Malaysia. Basically, in Malaysia two ministries are responsible for providing full and comprehensive education to all Malaysian ranging from Pre-education and primary education to Secondary and Tertiary education. There are Minister of Education (MOE) which leading education for pre, primary and secondary schools including Matriculation College while other ministry called Ministry of Higher Education conducting tertiary education for SPM (O-Level), STPM (A-Level) and Foundation Leavers.
Pre Education – Under MOE and Welfare Ministry
Although Pre-Education is not compulsory for Malaysian, mostly parents sending their children to Pre-E to give early exposure for education world. Currently, Malaysian Government has setup Pre-E school at rural area while in urban, private sector dominating the space. Registered pre-schools are subjected to zoning regulations and must comply with other regulations such as health screening and fire hazard assessment. Many of the preschools are located in high density residential areas where normal residences which comply with the regulations of the Welfare Ministry are converted for this purpose. Some private schools have pre-school sections. Other pre-school programmes are run by religious groups. Maximum age for Pre-E is 6 years old while no minimum age regulated.
Primary School – Under MOE
All kids age 7 are subjected to attend primary school till age 12. It is illegal for parents not sending them to any national schools or private schools. Primary education consists 6 years learning referred as year 1 till year 6. In order to examine the students’ abilities, year 6 will undergo standardized test call UPSR. Subjects that tested are Malay Comprehension, English, Mathematics, Science, Chinese Language and Tamil Language. English and Mathematics are tested in English. Students who achieve excellent result will gain admission into Fully-Residential schools or known as SM SAINS.
Lower Secondary – Under MOE
Those who are age 13 to 15 will pursue their study in lower secondary. They frequently referred as Form 1, Form 2 and Form 3 student. At the end of the year, Form 3 students will sitting Lower Secondary Evaluation (PMR) which set by Malaysia Examination Syndicate. Based on choice, they will be streamed into either the Science stream or Arts stream. The Science stream is generally more desirable. Students are allowed to shift to the Arts stream from the Science stream, but rarely vice-versa. Those who are chosen to enroll their study at Fully Residential School or SM Sains (Stand for Science Boarding School) will be streamed to science stream.
Upper secondary – Under MOE
After obtaining PMR results, students who did well in examination, will be streamed to Science Boarding School or SM Sains. They will take up 10 compulsory subjects which are Malay Language, English, History, Islamic Studies/Moral Studies, Chemistry, Physics, Additional Mathematics (Further Maths), Biology, Mathematics (regular) and English for Science and Technology. However, in some other boarding school, students have to taking up 12 subjects with additional to Accounting and English literature. Some students are very keen to take up 20 subjects in O-Level and this has been allowed by Ministry of Education. For your information, students of Science Boarding School are required to take up at least one foreign language. Foreign languages that offered are French, Japanese, Chinese, German and Arabic. In my former school, I was taking up French.
For those who choose not to study at Boarding school, they could pursue their study at daily school known as Sekolah Menengah (High School or Secondary School). However, in daily school, no foreign language is offered.
Exta-Curicular activity
All Students in Malaysia must join at least 3 extra curricular activities such as Uniform Body (such as Scout, Police Cadet, Military Cadet, and Girl Guide), Society, Sports and Games, and Clubs. Marks will be credited to students who are active in all activities and the marks are required to pursue study at University.
I hope with this explanation would help you to understand our education system in Malaysia.
