The structure of education in Malaysia is based upon a 3-6-5-1 model. Recent developments include initiatives to move away from rote learning practices to ones that include more critical thinking and greater understanding of concepts. There is a significant divide between National schools and Chinese schools although there have been steady moves to unify the system. However, the tertiary entrance system is heavily biased towards Malay students achieving university places over Chinese students. As a result, many Malaysian students study overseas if there is financial support to do so.
a) School education
Pre-Primary Level
Pre-primary education is available to most children between the ages of 3-6 within a system of kindergartens largely operated by private providers. Pre-school attendance rates are very high with 99% of all six-year-olds attend the primary school, with 92% of students continuing through to upper secondary school.
Primary Level
Primary education consists of six years of education commencing at 7 years of age and continuing until 12, called Year 1 to Year 6 or Standard 1 to Standard 6. Promotion to the next year is automatic, regardless of academic performanc e.
Secondary Level
Secondary education in Malaysia covers five years. The different types of schools fit into five categories: National Secondary School (Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan), Religious Secondary School (Sekolah Menengah Agama), National-Type Secondary School (Sekolah Menengah Jenis Kebangsaan), which is also referred to as Mission Schools, Technical Schools (Sekolah Menengah Teknik), Residential Schools and MARA Junior Science College (Maktab Rendah Sains MARA).
National secondary schools use Malay as the main language of instruction except for Mathematics, Science and Languages other than Malay. In the final year of secondary education (Form Five), students are assessed according to the Malaysian Certificate of Education (Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia, SPM) examination, equivalent to the former British Ordinary or 'O' Levels.
Non-Government Schools
The government has a complex system of funding for privately-operated schools with some blurring between the public and private sectors and the level of funding received. The Ministry of Education sets the standards for curriculum for all types of private and publicly operated schools. A network of International schools meets the needs of many expatriate students.
b) Vocational education and training (VET)
Students wishing to obtain a diploma in areas of vocational education may attend one of the many polytechnics that specialise in this area.
c) Higher education
Pre-Tertiary and Tertiary Education
Recent re-evaluation of university colleges in Malaysia has led to the increase in number of institutions classified as universities with the authority to confer degrees. Some of these are:
Northern University, Malaysia
University of Malaysia, Kelantan
National Defence University of Malaysia
University of Malaya
Technical University of Malaysia, Melaka
Islamic Science University of Malaysia
University of Malaysia, Pahang
Science University, Malaysia
Sultan Idris University of Education
University of Malaysia, Perlis
University of Malaysia, Sabah
University of Malaysia, Sarawak
International Islamic University of Malaysia
National University of Malaysia
MARA University of Technology
Putra University, Malaysia
Darul Iman University of Malaysia
University of Malaysia, Terengganu
Complementing these are two private universities, Multimedia University, and Universiti Teknologi Petronas, both with high international reputations. There are four foreign universities with branch campuses in Malaysia: Monash University Malaysia Campus, Curtin University of Technology Sarawak Campus, Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus, and University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus. Institutions of higher education include the SAE Institute and the Australia and Raffles Design Institute, Singapore.
Accreditation of academic programs provided by private colleges and universities is overseen by the National Accreditation Board. The management and coordination of quality assurance in public universities is carried out by the Quality Assurance Division (QAD) under the oversight of the Ministry of Education (MOE).
Tertiary education through Virtual Campus Initiatives are available through: Multimedia University, Open University of Malaysia (UNITEM), Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Universiti Tun Abdul Razak (UNITAR), and Wawasan Open University
Overview of Distance Education
Distance education in Malaysia began with the activities of private correspondence schools. During the first part of the 20th century, institutions, such as Stamford College and Raffles College, offered correspondence courses to individuals unable to find places in government-funded schools. By the 1950s, UK institutions, such as the University of London, were offering external degrees. In addition, there were professional bodies in the United Kingdom that provided certificate and diploma level correspondence programs in different fields. The Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) became the first Malaysian provider of higher education by distance in 1971. However, growth in the sector was relatively slow until the 1990s. The situation changed when education for adults was made a major priority as part of the Malaysian Government’s Seventh Malaysia Plan (1996–2000). The result was a rapid expansion of the provision of distance education by Malaysian universities. Almost all major universities in Malaysia now offer distance learning programs, including a growing number of private providers.
The use of distance education in Malaysian secondary schools is relatively uncommon. Part of the reasons is that many parents are doubtful of the effectiveness of distance learning, in general, and e-learning, in particular. Malaysian society is relatively conservative. Traditional face-to-face teaching is still seen as the ideal.
Malaysian polytechnics have shown relatively little interest in distance education, unlike many universities. As with the secondary sector, the main barrier is widespread prejudice against distance learning. Distance education is still seen primarily as a means of reaching adult learners who already work full or part-time.
In contrast to the situation in the secondary and TVET sectors, distance education is flourishing in Malaysian higher education. The major public and private universities active in the DE field include:
Malaysia Multimedia University (MMU)
Open University Malaysia (OUM)
School of Professional and Continuing Education (SPACE)
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia(UKM)
Universiti Malaya (UM)
Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM)
Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM)
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia(UTM)
Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM)
University Tenaga Nasional
University Tun Abdul Razak(UNITAR)
Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM)
Wawasan Open University (WOU)
A varied range of technologies is employed in distance learning in Malaysian higher education. Although many universities continue to rely heavily on correspondence courses, there is increasing use of Internet technologies, including, email, online chat, bulletin-boards and videoconferencing. However, most distance education providers in Malaysia have lagged behind world-class institutions overseas in the adoption of the latest Web-based e-learning approaches. Extensive use is still made of fixed videoconferencing facilities at local learning centres to deliver videoconferencing. As broadband becomes more widely available, a switch to the wider use of Web-based multimedia and Web 2.0 approaches is expected.
The Open University Malaysia provides an example of the successful use of distance learning in the university sector. Although a private university, Open University Malaysia (OUM) is owned by a consortium of 11 Malaysian public universities. Distance learning is typically through a combination of online delivery and face-to-face tuition at Learning Centres, although a growing number of students study entirely online. The OUM has over 79,000 students in 70 academic programs. The OUM received an Award of Excellence for Institutional Achievement in Distance Education by the Commonwealth of Learning in 2010.
The Government sponsored the Off-Campus Programme at the Mara Institute of Technology (ITM), which was introduced in 1973 to produce more professionals and semi-professionals amongst the Bumiputra (indigenous group). The Off-Campus academic programme at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) is the largest provider of distance education at the tertiary level, leading to degree qualifications.
In addition to Malaysian providers, there are a number of foreign universities active in the provision of distance learning. These include well-known UK universities such as the University of London, which offers over a 100 bachelors and masters level programs through distance education in Malaysia. There is also a significant Australian presence in the distance education marketplace.
Administration and Finance
Education in Malaysia is overseen by two government ministries: the Ministry of Education (Kementerian Pelajaran) handles matters pertaining to pre-school, primary school, secondary school and post-secondary school and the Ministry of Higher Education (Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi) those relating to tertiary education. Although education is the responsibility of the federal government, each state has an Education Department to coordinate educational matters in its territory. The main legislation governing education is the Education Act of 1996.
There are also other government agencies involved in higher education under the jurisdiction of MOHE; namely the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA), the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (Perbadanan Tabung Pendidikan Tinggi Nasional – PTPTN) and Yayasan Tunku Abdul Rahman (YTAR).
Higher Education Reforms
In recent years, Malaysian public universities have come under increasing demands to improve the quality of their teaching and research. There are serious concerns among Malaysian policy makers regarding the quality of public universities. In particular, the failure of Malaysian universities to find a place on Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s ranking of the top 500 universities in the world has caused considerable disquiet. The Ministry of Higher Education’s National Higher Education Strategic Plan 2007–2020 sets down a number of objectives. These include: widening access and increasing equity in higher education; improving the quality of teaching and learning; intensifying research and innovation; and the enculturation of lifelong learning. Achievement of these objectives will impose new challenges on Malaysian public universities.
Future Direction of Tertiary Education
The Malaysian university system is expected to continue its rapid growth over the next few decades. The Malaysian Government is committed to broadening the choices available to higher education students, increasing the number of higher education providers and attracting additional private and overseas investment into the sector. This expansion is driven by a number of policy drivers. The first of these is need for a broader skills base if Malaysia is to become a developed country by 2020 as the Government intends. Another major driver is the economic cost of overseas study by Malaysian students, which is a major drain on the country’s foreign currency reserves. The expansion of university access and greater equity in tertiary participation is also seen as a critical factor in maintaining social stability in a multi-racial society. Finally, there is a widespread belief that Malaysia will reap significant economic benefits if it can establish itself as a regional education provider.
Information and Communications Technology Initiatives
A survey conducted in 2004 (Asirvatham, Kaur, & Abas, 2005) showed that
- Malaysia is moderately ready for e-learning,
- Malaysia is not environmentally ready,
- Malaysia is technically ready,
- Enablers are mostly ready, culturally,
- Learners are more ready for e-learning compared to the perception of their lecturers, and
- Malaysia is not seen as financially ready by providers and policy-makers.
During the first years of using the Internet and ICT, most of the E-learning projects, even those aiming to design learning processes, were focused on technical innovation to create technology based learning environments. More recently, the focus is increasingly on the learner and on methodologies and didactics.
a) Information society strategy
None identified.
b) Major e-learning initiatives
As part of its Vision 2020, the Malaysian Government has sought to realise an ambitious goal, the creation of a world-class ICT infrastructure in the country by the end of the current decade. One result of this determination was the Smart School (Sekolah Bestari) initiative, a flagship program launched in 1996 as part of the MSC Malaysia project. The goal of the initiative was to bring about a radical change in educational philosophy in the nation’s schools. As part of the initiative, it was hoped that teachers and students would shift from an exam-dominated learning culture to one based on thinking and the creative use of knowledge. At one stage it was envisaged that all nine thousand schools in Malaysia would be smart schools by 2010.
In practice, the initiative ran into a number of obstacles. Not the least of these was the task of embedding a radically different e-learning culture across so many schools at once. As a result, the Malaysian Government has modified its approach. The Smart Schools still exist, but increasingly they are operating within Cluster Schools. Cluster Schools are groups of schools working together as teams. The concept serves to encourage teachers to share resources and knowledge. In addition, each Cluster is linked to an institute of the higher learning, an approach which providing teachers with essential support as they grapple with new technologies and ways of teaching.
The University Tun Abdul Razak (UNITAR) was founded in 1998 as Malaysia’s first virtual university to take advantage of the growing sophistication of telecommunications within the country. Established by a private company, UNITAR was intended as a radical experiment in the Malaysian context. The main investment was not in physical facilities, but rather in the development of the institution’s technology infrastructure.
It was intended that UNITAR would provide a lower-cost alternative to a conventional university. UNITAR’s mission was to provide quality education to a global market at an affordable price. For this reason, it was decided that English would be the language of instruction.
Initially, UNITAR delivered its programs on CD-ROM as a result of doubts regarding the feasibility of fully online delivery in the Malaysian context. As the Malaysian telecommunications has structure developed, UNITAR has increased its online teaching, despite initial misgivings regarding the capacity of Web-based teaching to equal the richness of CD-ROM-based multimedia. One of the lessons learnt from the UNITAR experience has been that it is often better to employ a mature technology than to opt for the latest technology. The latest is not always the best in terms of building a stable learning environment for students. The success of the UNITAR over the last decade has demonstrated the value of this cautious approach.
c) Benchmarking e-learning
None identified.
d) Support for OER
Open University Malaysia (OUM) has established OUM OER, an online repository of open educational resources developed by academic staff at the institution. The aim of this repository is to provide quality OER that are free and accessible to the general community through the Internet. Another Malaysian university with an interest in OER is Wawasan Open University, which has an active research program in the field.
e) Government entities
Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA)
Ministry of Education (MOE)
Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE)
f) Associations and networks
Asian Association of Open Universities (AAOU)
Malaysian Association of Distance Education (MADE)
Malaysian Association of Private Colleges and Universities (MAPCU)
g) Distance Education journals
Malaysian Journal of Distance Education (MJDE)
Malaysian Journal of Educational Technology
International Journal of Education and Development using ICT
Interesting Distance Education Initiatives
Wawasan Open University (WOU) is almost unique among modern universities in South-East Asia. It is Malaysia's first private, not-for-profit, open university. WOU opened its doors in 2007 with 720 students, aged between 21 and 71 years. WOU is primarily funded by a charitable trust and through donations from corporations and members of the public. Its goal is to make university education more accessible and affordable to adult learners, irrespective of gender, age, ethnicity or background. WOU prides itself as being “the people’s university”.
Although many of the major Malaysian universities have employed e-learning approaches for some years, awareness of the importance of online teaching among teaching staff and students is still uneven. In 2008, the OUM sought to evaluate the success of its online forums. The evaluation covered 137 forums within 20 courses. The results were disappointing. A number of tutors were unable to support online discussions effectively. There were also other tutors who were rarely participated. As a result, the benefits of online classes were not clear to students. The OUM took action in August 2008, revising its tutot training. The new training program emphasised the importance of supporting online forums, and provided tutors with instruction on the online presence that was required to build a community of inquiry. This training included advice on the social, cognitive and teaching aspects of the tutor’s participation. These problems are not unique to the OUM or even to Malaysian distance education universities. They occur to a greater or less degree wherever the shift to e-learning occurs. What is important is that the OUM had a thoughtful, deliberate approach for dealing with this challenge.