Malaysian Chinese - Education

Education

Malaysian Chinese can be categorized to be educated in 3 different streams of education i.e. English educated, Chinese educated and Malay educated.

Public education in Malaysia is free. There are two types of public schools at the primary level: the Malay-medium National schools and the non-Malay-medium National-type schools. National-type schools are subdivided into Chinese-medium and Tamil-medium schools. For the secondary level, only Malay-medium National schools currently exist. There used to be English-medium National-type schools at the primary and the secondary levels as well, however they had been assimilated to become Malay-medium National schools since the 1980s. In all schools, Malay (the national language) and English are compulsory subjects. By law, primary education is compulsory. Malaysian Chinese citizens can choose to attend any school regardless of medium of instruction, although virtually none choose to attend Tamil-medium schools due to cultural differences.

At the tertiary level, most Bachelor's degree courses offered at public universities are taught in the national language, that is, Bahasa Malaysia, while post-graduates studies are usually conducted in English. English is used as the primary medium of instruction at most private higher educational institutions.

About 90% of Malaysian Chinese children in Malaysia today go to Mandarin-medium primary schools, while only a small group of 10% or so attend Malay medium primary schools. However, most Malaysian Chinese (more than 95%) switch to Malay medium schools for their secondary education. The rationale behind this is because Malay-medium secondary schools are free while Mandarin-medium secondary schools are fee paying.

The switch from Mandarin medium primary school to Malay medium secondary school for the majority of Malaysian Chinese has resulted in many school dropouts as students are unable to cope with the difference in the medium of instruction. The Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) pointed out an estimated 25% of Chinese students dropout before reaching the age of 18; the annual dropout rate is estimated to be over 100,000 and worsening. Certain dropouts become apprentices in workshops, picking up skills like plumbing or motor-repair. Others eager to make a quick buck find themselves involved in illicit trades, such as peddling pirated DVDs or collecting debts for loan sharks. However in October 2011, Deputy Education Minister Wee Ka Siong indicated that the 25% dropout rate may not be accurate as many Chinese students choose to pursue their studies at private schools or overseas such as in Singapore, while the Malaysian government only collates student data from the national school system, giving a false impression of a high dropout rate.

During the colonial period and for years after independence, English schools originally established by the British colonial government were regarded as more prestigious than the different vernacular schools. As a result, a significant number of older Malaysian Chinese who attended school before the 1970s are English-educated. Beginning in the 1970s, English-medium teaching was replaced with Malay-medium teaching in English national-type schools, which became Malay-medium national schools. Since then, most English-educated parents send their children to Chinese primary schools while a few choose to send their children to Malay-medium national schools. Those who went to national schools would be known as Malay-educated Chinese.

The eventual objective of making Malay the main medium of instruction in schools as stated in the Razak Report (the fundamental report for the education policy of Malaysia), along with the assimilation of English national-type schools into Malay national schools, had led to Chinese education groups being vigorously protective of the Chinese education system in Malaysia. In 2003 to 2011, the Malaysian government introduced an experimental policy of using English as the language of instruction for Science and Mathematics at primary and secondary schools. The decision sparked concerns and protests among Chinese education groups. A compromise was reached that Chinese primary schools would teach Science and Mathematics in both Chinese and English. In July 2009, the education minister announced that the medium of instruction for Science and Mathematics would revert back to the original languages of instruction starting from 2012.