EDUCATION IN MALAYSIA

This blog is the personal thoughts & opinions of the writers on the state of the Malaysian education system, both private and public, the resulting products of the system as well as the job market in relation to fresh graduates.
MONDAY, MARCH 26, 2007

UK vs US: A Different Perspective

I wrote a while back on the general perception of United Kingdom vs United States universities. It attracted a fair bit of interest and a lot of comments. Tilia Wong, who's studying at San Jose State University, with a prior stint at a Australian university, wrote in to express her differing views from my post(s). She has kindly permitted me to reproduce her letter here, and share her views with our readers. ;) "I was reading your blog titled United Kingdom vs. United States dated the 24th of April 2006 and I feel rather compelled to write to you about it. I started looking for blog posts on this topic after my father had a conversation with some of his friends where they passed some rather derogatory remarks concerning the American education system. At this point, I should state that I am a junior at San Jose State University studying civil engineering. In your blog post, you wrote that you thought a UK degree was more specialised and a US one is more generalised. Well, I have not studied in the UK, but I did do one year of civil engineering in Australia whose system, I understand, is very similar to the British one. I studied in Australia for year and then I found that I did not enjoy life there and decided to transfer to the United States. I redid many of the same courses and therefore I think that I am fully equipped to make a comparison of the two. The subjects taken during the course of the degree are highly similar. However, when you compare the content of the subject, the American degree is actually more in depth than the Australian one. I will compare the first year subjects since I did them in both countries and therefore can make a fairer assesment. In Australia, I did two semesters of math which was a mix of calculus, matrices and so on. In America, I did 3 semesters of calculus, one of differential equations and another of linear algebra. In Australia, I did one semester of Engineering Mechanics which consisted of statics and dynamics. In America, the subjects were split up with one semester dedicated to each. The American semester is about 16 weeks long and the Australian semester has about 13 weeks worth of lecture. Please feel free to draw your own conclusions from these figures. Your blog post also stated that one does not have to decide which specialisation until the second year in America. Basically, the system does not FORCE you to declare a major until you feel like it. However, if you do not have a clear major in mind from the very beginning and follow a strict program, you will not graduate in four years. It is no different from going to the UK, declaring one major and then switching to another. In the US, you just call the first major undeclared and you are free to take a myriad of subjects to figure out what you want to do. However, if you do so, most of the courses will not go towards your degree and some people take seven years to graduate. Its not as if you are free to bum around, take 2 years of art history courses and then decide to major in accounting later. You will pay the price if you do that. You stated that your friend Kian Ming "did it right" by doing undergrad in UK and postgrad in the US. I do not think there is any "right" way of doing it. Some people have very good memories and can cram for final exams that are worth 70% of your grade. Others, prefer doing research, working on projects, and accumulating knowledge slowly over the semester. Both systems have their merits and

to say that doing undergrad in UK is the right way is somewhat derogatory. Personally, I felt stifled and cooped up in Australia. Coming to America has exposes you to new technology, a level of diversity that is incomparable, and an opportunity to learn things you would normally never even dream of reading about. I am a civil engineer but the American general education system has taught me political science, public speaking techniques, writing techniques, art history, yoga, salsa, and kinesiology to name a few. On top of that, I do believe that I have a strong grounding in civil engineering. If American universities provided such a poor and shallow education on the specific major since it is not as in depth, then how does America beat so many nations on every level? Because of America's good postgraduate programs? The majority does not do postgraduate studies. Now that I have spoken my piece on American universities, I would like to comment on university rankings. I do have to make the observation that you tend to focus on and place great weight on top ranking universities. I do agree that attending a top ranking university carries with it great prestige and an enhanced university experience. However, your blog is probably read by a lot of people and statistically speaking, most of them should be average both in academic results and financial might. If your aim is to advise people on the best course to take, a lot of the paths you have suggested are out of the question for 95% of the population. I realise that you have placed a note at the bottom of most of your posts that you realise that national rankings may be inaccurate. However, I would like to cite you an example using my university demonstrating exactly how irrelevant university rankings can be. San Jose State University is not highly ranked on the overall national scale. However, it is ranked 10th in the nation for undergraduate engineering and 5th for industrial and computer engineering. It is only ranked 41st of the universities in the West for the overall ranking. It is not fair to judge a university graduate's degree based on the national overall ranking alone. Perhaps it would be more beneficial to the public if you would educate them by pointing out the potential for large disparities between the national ranking and the specific course ranking. Another example of national overall university rankings having very little to do with the calibre of the student (at least in the United States) is this. San Jose State University is surrounded by high ranking, ivy league powerhouses. Stanford, and Santa Clara Unversity are less than twenty minutes drive away. In a 5 hour driving radius, you can find USC, UCLA, and UC Berkeley just to name a few. All of these are higher ranked than San Jose State University. However, San Jose State supplies the highest number of graduates in the world to Silicon Valley with companies like Intel, Yahoo, Google, Ebay, Cisco and so on. Why are these companies choosing lower ranked university graduates over the ivy league ones if national ranking really tells a person so much about how good their graduate is? It cannot be from the lack of applications from other unversity graduates. A recent survey stated that Silicon Valley pays out the highest median income in the United States. Yet a university ranked 41st in the West is trouncing other universities in terms of employment in Silicon Valley. Well, these are my opinions on the American education system and university rankings. I hope that you will give them some thought."

Brief Comparison between United Kingdom and Malaysian Education System

Education has various definitions and meanings. According to Cambridge Advanced Leaners dictionary, education is the process of teaching or learning in a school or college or the knowledge that you get from the school or college[1]. Education is very important for a society to make sure that the country is well developed and harmony. There are many books and journals discuss about the purposes of education. According to Airil Haimi Adnan and Edwin Smith (2001) there are seven main social functions of education. The social functions of education are as follow[2]:

1. Development; to ensure the development of society for the modern world 2. Political; to uphold the current political system and maintain the loyalty to it. 3. Value function; education as a medium to promote a society norms and values. 4. Identity function; education as a medium to create a national Identity and harmony society 5. Stratification function; education as a medium to select the more able from the society as a whole using a meritocratic principles. 6. Economic function; to produce a human capital that can stimulate the economic growth and bring wealth to the nation. 7. Socialisation function; education act as a medium for the kids to socialise with each other.
Both United Kingdom and Malaysias education policy are trying to address all the functions of education above. In this essay I am going to compare the education system between United Kingdom and Malaysia. I also going to discuss about how both country can learn from each other. The similarities and differences in terms of the structure of school system are also discussed in this essay. The basic structure of education system in United Kingdom and Malaysia is almost similar. Education system in United Kingdom consists of three stages where each stage can be subdivided. Meanwhile, Malaysian education system can be divided into four stages which also later can be subdivided. United Kingdom education consists of pre-compulsory, compulsory and post compulsory education. Pre-compulsory education can include playschool, kindergarten, nursery, pre-prep and reception. Pre- compulsory stage is for kids at the age five years old and below. Class for Kids who attend primary school at the age of four is called reception class. Compulsory stage can be divided into two, primary and secondary school. Primary school is for kids at the age of five to eleven years old. The national curriculum for primary school is called key stage 1 (age five to seven years old) and key stage 2 (age seven to eleven years old) [3]. Before 2010, primary school students were required to take National Curriculum Assessment (Sats) examination. However, in April 2009, National Union of teacher (NUT) voted to boycott the Sats exam for primary school starting 2010 onwards. Even though some school still doing the sats exam, the result were not handed to the government. According to Christine

Blower, the acting secretary of NUT, there is overwhelming evidence that Sats damage the education of children, supported by evidence linking them to deterioration in children health[4]. Meanwhile, secondary school in United Kingdom can be divided into two key stages, key stage 3(age 11 to 14) and key stage 4 (age 14 to 16). At the end of key stage 4 (year 11) students are required to take GCSE examination. Sats examination at the end of key stage 3 was abolished by government in 2008. Teachers and parents praised the education secretary, Ed balls (now shadow chancellor of exchequer) and describe the decision as the first sensible decisions that Mr Balls had done. The decisions to abolish the examination also get a support from the members of opposition party. Mr Balls described that Sats exam for key stage 3 is less relevant as parents and teachers already have GCSE and A-level to measure the standard[5]. As United Kingdom reform the education system to be fewer exams oriented, so do the Malaysian. Malaysian formal education starts at the age of four or five years old. This level is called pre-school level and equivalent to reception class in United Kingdom. Pre-school is considered to be a preparation for kid before they enter primary school. Children in Malaysia are required to spend six years in primary school. Primary school in Malaysia is for children at the age of seven to twelve years old. At the end of primary school, pupils were required to take primary school assessment (UPSR). On June 2010, Minister of education, Mr Muhyidin Yasin, announced government plan to abolish UPSR[6]. However, a lot of people including the government backbenchers opposed the idea. One of the parties in the government coalition, Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) did not agree with this plan but suggested that the format of the UPSR might be change to create an education that is more holistic[7]. Finally on October 2010, Minister of education announced that the UPSR examination will be retained but there will be a changes in the format of the exam as suggested by the Malaysian Chinese Association. Meanwhile, secondary school in Malaysia consists of two stages, lower form and upper form. Lower form (form 1 to form 3) is for students at the age of 13 years old to 15 years old, while upper form (form 4 to form 5) is for students at the age of 16 to 17 years old. There will be a lower form examination at the end of form 3, and Malaysia Education Certificate (SPM) examination at the end of form 5. However, the government decided to abolish the lower form examination (PMR) on October 2010. The change in lower form examination and primary assessment (UPSR) will take change starting from 2016[8]. The decision to abolish any examination in Malaysia gets a mixed reaction from the people. Some people against it simply because they already used to the examination based system and claiming that the government change the education system too often. In my opinion, the government decision to reform the education system is correct because according to Airil Haimi and Edwin Smith, the examination based system restricted the full potential for development in society where the students only focus to success in examination and not the using the knowledge in real life.

For the post secondary education, there are a similarities and differences between United Kingdom and Malaysia. After secondary school in United Kingdom, students will enter a

six form college to study As level and A level. The same system is practice in Malaysia where students study in 6th form (lower and upper form) after SPM examination. However, In Malaysia, there is another system which is called a Matriculation system that works differently from the 6th form system. Students will study in Matriculation College where the college use the university style teaching system. Student that gets good result in SPM will study in one year programs while other student will study in two years programs. One year programs allow student to enter the university earlier those students who study in 6th form and two years matriculation program[9]. However, students will face more difficulties because they are required to finish a lot of syllabus in a short period of time. Based on the comparison above, there is huge evidence of political influences in education system for both countries. Teacher Union in United Kingdom play an important role to make sure that the government decision is the best for the children and the society. Teacher Union in Malaysia should be more proactive and play an important role advising the government in the issues of education. Malaysia government should hear the voice of the teacher and consult with the teacher union before deciding a new policy in education. By doing that, the government will come out with the decision that is good for everybody especially the children, teachers and schools. In the other hand, United Kingdom should give a huge priority to students in all level. In Malaysia for example, most of the budget allocation for 2011 is spent for education. This includes MYR 6.4 billion to upgrade schools and MYR 29.3 billion for strengthening and training in education[10]. The recent decision by the coalition government to increase the tuition fees in university up to 9000 is going to burden the university students in England. According to the Shadow business secretary, it was unfair to charge the student for the cost of their degree, and the labour will oppose any decision to increase the tuition fees[11]. In conclusion, although both United Kingdom and Malaysia education system are not perfect, both governments are trying to address all the functions of education in their policy. The teachers can help the government to make decision regarding the education through the teacher union. Cooperation between the government and teacher could produce a better education system in the future.

Note: I wrote this essay during the first semester of my teaching course. I post it on this site just to share some of the works that I did during my study. I currently working on other assignment and quite busy with my second school placement. I plan to write a post about geography of the Moon but it seems that I still dont have a time to do it. Hopefully I will be able to post it by the end of March. May God make it easy for me.....

References

[1]Cambridge Advanced Leaners Dictionary, Cambridge http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/education>

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Press

2010,

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[2] Airil Aimi Adnan and Edwin Smith, The social function of education in a developing country: the case of Malaysian schools and the role of Malaysian Teacher, Intercultural education, Vol 12, No 3, 2001, pp. 327. [3] Education in England and Wales, Aspire Aimhigher South east London, 13 June 2005, view http://www.aspireon 30 October 2010, < aimhigher.ac.uk/component/option,com_docman/task,doc_details/gid,51/ > [4] Nicola Woolcock, The teachers and Head unite to force abolition on Sats, Times online Sunday, 11 April 2009, view on 30 October 2010, < http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article6074231.ece > [5] Graeme Paton and Matthew Moore, Sats for 14- year olds abolished: teacher and parents praised decision, The Telegraph, 15 October 2008, view on 23 october 2010, < http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/primaryeducation/3199156/Sats-for-14-year-oldsabolished-Teachers-and-parents-praise-decision.html > [6] UPSR and PMR may be abolish, The Star Online, June 2010, View on 23 October 2010, < http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?sec=nation&file=/2010/6/20/nation/20100620133714 > [7] MCA supports abolishing PMR exams but wants UPSR retained with changes, Malaysian Chinese Association Online, July 2010, view on 30 October 2010, < http://www.mca.org.my/en/mca-supports-abolishing-pmr-exams-but-wants-upsr-retained-withchanges%C2%A0/ >

[9] Education System, Ministry of Education Malaysia, 2010, view on 30 October 2010, <http://www.moe.gov.my/?id=85&lang=en > [10] Education in Malaysia Budget 2011, Education Talk, 17 October 2010, view on 2 November 2010, < http://www.edu-talk.net/2010/10/financial-aid/scholarship/education-inmalaysia-budget-2011/ > [11] Sean Coughlan, Student face tuition fees up to 9000, BBC online, 3 November 2010, View on 9 November 2010, < http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11677862