CHAPTER 3

EDUCATION POLICY IN MALAYSIA: NATIONAL UNITY AND HUMAN

CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT
3.1 Introduction
The effect of enhanced educational inputs upon economic outputs must be seen
within abroader historical and sociological perspective which attempts to examine
the problematic relationship between education and development in the widest sense.
(Foster, 1985:1529).
As discussed in Chapter 2, different migrant groups in Malaysia did not
integrate well after the substantial migration from China and India during the British
Occupation. Although the different ethnic groups interacted with each other during
the course of their daily life, for example in market places, each ethnic group
continued to retain their own culture, religion, language and ideas. Thus, they were
living separately in society while living in the same area (Furnivall, 1948:304).
Within this environment, education has emerged as an important issue in Malaysia. It
is regarded not only as an investment in human capital, but also as a means for
preserving national unity, and the languages and cultural identity of different ethnic
groups.
This chapter discusses the Malaysian education system in a historical and
political context, to better understand the effect of education on economic
development. The chapter will provide the background for subsequent chapters on
the effect of education on inequality and growth. Section 3.2 discusses the history of
education in Malaysia, as well as the importance of education for nation building.
The issue of education, language and national unity is discussed in Section 3.3.
Section 3.4 discusses the relationship between educational inequality and inequality
of income. Section 3.5 reviews the Malaysian government’s affirmative action
policy. Section 3.6 provides a brief overview of Malaysian education data, followed
by a discussion on the impact of globalization in Section 3.7. New directions in
higher education are presented in Section 3.8 and Section 3.9 presents the current
Malaysian education challenges. Section 3.10 summarizes the chapter.
3.2 Education Development and Policy during British Occupation1
The British government in Malaya did not place much emphasis on
educational development, perhaps because of limited resources, and the British
1 See
Francis and Gwee (1972), Lee (1972), Fong (1989) and Rashid (2002) for extensive literature in
Malaysian education system and history.

Education Policy in Malaysia: National Unity and Human Capital Development

37
policy in the Straits Settlements: ‘to interfere as little as possible with the manners,
customs, methods and prejudices of the different nationalities’ (Bee, 1978:466).
Education was conducted by the community on a private basis. Different ethnic
groups had their own educational system without universal standards or systematic
curriculum. In fact, until the 1950s the Malay, Chinese, Tamil and English schools
were allowed to determine their own curriculum and textbooks, mostly based on their
home country (Francis and Gwee, 1972:8). In Malay communities, education was
conducted by the Imam in the mosque, particularly emphasizing religious education
and Quranic readings.
However in the 1870s, as part of a British policy to assist development by
building infrastructure, the British government established free Malay primary
schools. The objective was not so much to develop human capital but to provide
basic knowledge of reading, writing and simple arithmetic at the elementary level.
This education was intended to ensure that Malay children were ‘better than their
father’ and not ‘cheated’ by Chinese and Indians at daily transactions (Selvaratnam,
1988:175; Fong, 1989; Ali, 2008).
On the other hand, Chinese education received no support from the British
government. Schools were fully funded by the communities using their own
resources, with some funds collected from their home country. The syllabus and
textbooks were brought from China, and different clans used their own dialect as a
medium of instruction (Francis and Gwee, 1972: 27). As the main objective of
education was to preserve their own culture, language and ideology, the type of
education was largely influenced by their home country. In 1920, the British
government introduced controls on the syllabus, teachers and medium of instruction,
in order to obstruct the spread of communist ideology in schools. Mandarin was used
as a medium of instruction, replacing various local dialects (Fong, 1989: 17).
Similar to the Chinese community, Indian education was also conducted
privately with relatively little assistance from the British government. Tamil schools
were initiated by the plantation owners, especially after the British government
introduced the Labor Code in 1912. The Labor Code 1912 made school
establishment a legal responsibility of plantation owners. Nevertheless, with limited
resources, the quality of education, particularly the facilities and teachers, was not at
a satisfactory level. Teachers were untrained and classes were sometimes conducted
by the plantation staff (Fong, 1989).
Chapter 3
38
English schools however were fully funded and established by the British
government. Better quality schools were mainly located in urban areas. The English
schools, often conducted by Christian missionaries, consisted of six years of primary
school and five years of secondary school (Francis and Gwee, 1972:14). Although
the schools charged high fees, they attracted high demand due to their relatively high
quality. Furthermore, English education was a necessary qualification for entry into
the British government services and its affiliations as a clerk or teacher. The
establishment of English schools largely benefited the Chinese as they mostly stayed
in urban areas and were more prosperous compared to Malays and Indians. In 1938,
the Chinese made up 80 percent of the 62,000 students enrolled in English schools.
Malays had less access to English education since the majority stayed in rural areas.
Many Malays were hesitant to send their children to English schools due to concerns
about whether Christian missionaries would attempt religious conversion. At the
same time, the British policy of not interfering with Malay customs and religion
discouraged Christian missionaries from setting up the schools in predominantly
Malay areas. As a result, there were only 5200 Malay students enrolled in English
schools in 1948 (Fong, 1989: 18).
3.3 Education, Language and National Unity
A dual education system existed from the early 1900s during the British
Occupation, creating a complex education system with English and vernacular
education running simultaneously. Although the British government realized that this
education system was a major part of ethnic segregation, no action was taken until
1949, when the British government established the Central Advisory Committee on
Education. The Committee was established to rectify the problem of the education
system contributing to ethnic segregation, and in particular to deal with the problems
of Malay education.
The Committee, chaired by L.J Barnes of Oxford University, suggested that
vernacular schools should be abolished and replaced with one type of school using
English and Malay as the medium of instruction. The Barnes Report was criticised
by the Chinese community because it would abolish Chinese schools. After
substantial pressure, the British government set up another committee to look into
Chinese education. The committee, headed by Dr. William P. Fenn and Dr. Wu The
Yao, proposed to the government that the Chinese culture and language should be
preserved in Chinese education. However, the syllabus and textbooks must be based
Education Policy in Malaysia: National Unity and Human Capital Development
39
on the local context without any influence from China (Francis and Gwee, 1972: 24;
Fong, 1989:14).
Following independence from the British government in 1957, national unity
was the main objective of Malaysian (Malayan) government policy. The differences
in educational streams inherited from British Occupation era had resulted in complex
problems for the new Malaysian government in promoting national unity. Since each
ethnic group held their own school system, usually seen as a measure to protect their
interests, early independence educational policy had be sensitive to different ethnic
needs.
Education, language and culture were controversial issues, particularly in a
multiracial society like Malaysia. The issue of unity became a main concern as each
ethnic group had their own culture, religion and ideologies that needed government
consideration (Rashid, 2002: 22-23). Education was seen as an effective tool to
inculcate national unity and redress ethnic economic imbalances. With specific
reference to Malaysia, Watson (1980:144) noted that:
In culturally plural societies education is seen as a neutral means of redressing ethnic
imbalances and of creating a sense of national unity where none existed before. It is
often linked with economic policies designed to redress economic imbalances which
might or might not coincide with race.
The development of a standardized education system was an initial effort to
achieve national unity. In 1955, a committee called the Razak Committee had been
formed with the main objective:
to establish a national system of education acceptable to the people of the Federation
as a whole which will satisfy their needs and promote their cultural development as a
nation, having regard to the intention to make Malay the National Language of the
country, whilst preserving and sustaining the growth of the language and culture of
others communities living in the country (The Razak Report Committee, 1956 c.f.
Watson, 1980: 145).
A common syllabus and examination system was adopted in all schools,
regardless of the medium of instruction, to create a sense of belonging to the country.
The Razak Report 1956 had clearly asserted that national unity was the most
important objective to achieve. According to the report:
… the introduction of a syllabus common to all schools in the Federation is the
crucial requirement of educational policy in Malaya. It is an essential element in the
development of a united Malayan nation. It is the key which will unlock the gates Chapter 3
40
hitherto standing locked and barred against the establishment of an educational
system acceptable to the people of Malaya as a whole (The Razak Report 1956 c.f.
Watson, 1980: 145)
The Razak Report became the foundation for the Malaysian national
education system. The report was legalized as the Educational Ordinance in 1956.
The main content of the Razak Report was the recognition of vernacular education in
which the Malay, Chinese, Tamil (Indian) and English languages were to be used as
the mediums of instruction, while Malay, as the national language, became a
compulsory subject in primary and secondary schools. The report also recommended
that all levels of schools should have a common syllabus and timetable.
However, the report did not satisfy many Malaysian ethnic groups as they
claimed that the Razak Report ‘failed to specify definite steps for achieving
educational unification based on the Malay medium by giving too much ground to
multilingualism’ (Fong, 1989:82-83). As a result, in 1960 the government set up a
new committee, the Rahman Talib Committee, to review the Malaysian education
system. The Rahman Talib Report 1960 proposed that multilingual medium of
instruction had to be implemented only in primary schools. The medium of
instruction in secondary schools would be in either Malay or English. English was
retained as the medium of instruction at the tertiary level. This report formed the
basis of the Education Act of 1961.
Since language and culture reflects individual personality and group identity
(Wong, 1973), it became:
…a thorny question in multi-racial societies because it can become a barrier to
integration if different ethnic or racial groups insist on maintaining their own
languages as a means of transmitting cultural and social values, and if they resist the
concept of a national language (Watson, 1980:147).
Therefore, the second initiative for nation building was developing a national
language policy. The role of the Malay language as the national language was
asserted in the Constitution of 1957, Article 152. However, the government realized
that the implementation of a national language policy was not an easy task. The
implementation was made gradually until 1967, for a period of ten years after
Merdeka (Independence) Day to give enough room for adjustment. Meanwhile, the
English language could be used in both Houses of Parliament, in the Legislative
Assembly of every State and for all other official purposes. This policy was accepted
by non-Malay groups. Currently, the Malay language is the official language, but
Education Policy in Malaysia: National Unity and Human Capital Development
41
vernacular schooling that allows classes to be taught in Chinese and Tamil languages
are maintained in primary school. The Malay language is the main medium of
instruction in secondary and tertiary education.
Despite the efforts discussed above to develop the education system after
independence, lower levels of education remained a problem in Malaysia,
particularly among the Malay ethnic groups. Selvaratnam (1988:175) noted that:
The pyramidal colonial educational system in the period 1786-1957 had created a
grave imbalance in the distribution of opportunities for education. With the
exception of the Malay feudal class, the majority of Malays were provided
with only an elementary vernacular education, from about 4 to 6 years, which was
terminal...the exclusive Western-biased English-medium education that was
provided by the colonial government and the Christian missions was restrictive, as it
was predominantly an urban phenomenon. Therefore, only a small section of the
feudal class of the Malays and the middle-class Indians, Chinese, and Eurasians who
lived in the urban areas and near them benefited from this educational
provision… The policy, therefore, obviously benefited the upper and middle classes
of the numerically preponderant urban Chinese, the middle and professional classes
of the Indians, and elements of the ruling Malay feudal class disproportionately.
3.4 Educational Inequality and Income Inequality
The differences in educational opportunity along with differences in the
socioeconomic background among ethnic groups resulted in problems of educational
inequality. The Population Census 1957 Report on literacy rates in West Malaysia
(Table 3.1) shows that the Malays had relatively low educational attainment. The
Malay literacy rates in any language were the lowest among ethnic groups in West
Malaysia. The literacy rate was only 47 percent compared to 53 and 57 percent for
the Chinese and Indian ethnic groups respectively.
Table 3.1: Literacy rates in West Malaysia: 1957 and 1967(%)
Source: Lee (1972:8) Note: n.a = not available
Language
English Malay Chinese Tamil In any language

Race 1957 1967 1957 1967 1957 1967 1957 1967 1957 1967
Malay 5 8.6 46 89.2 n.a 0.1 n.a 0.1 47 n.a
Chinese 11 14.3 3 0.7 n.a 85 n.a 0.01 53 n.a
Indian 16 28.4 5 1.6 n.a 0.3 n.a 66.8 57 n.a
All
10 14.2 25 42.3 n.a 33.1 n.a 9 51 n.a
Races