SECONDARY EDUCATION 1: MALAYSIA

Aims for Development

3.1 The development plan for secondary education aims to restructure secondary education from the present structure of 3+2+2 (7 years) to 4+2 (6 years) and revise the integrated Secondary School Curriculum (KBSM) to fit the new structure. The plan also aims to enhance students critical and creative thinking skills; improve acquisition and application of ICT skills; emphasise science and technology; improve mastery of Malays and English language; strengthen the infusion positive values and attitudes in teaching and learning; provide adequate numbers of trained, knowledgeable,and skilled teachers; equip secondary schools with appropriate infrastructure; and provide adequate and quality teaching and learning facilities in line with current developments in ICT.

3.2 The purpose of these aims is to produce students who are knowledgeable and skilful in various fields especially in science, technology and ICT; are proficient in Malay and English languages; have positive attitudes; practise good moral values; are critical and creative possess employability skills; and are prepared for higher learning.

EDUCATION MANAGEMENT 1: MALAYSIA

Aims for Development

7.1 The education management development plans aims to improve and strengthen the level of efficiency and effectiveness of management in the aspects of administration, monitoring and evaluation, curriculum and assessment, personnel, information

PRESCHOOL AND PRIMARY EDUCATION 1: MALAYSIA

Aims for Development

2.1 The Blueprint aims to institutionalise preschool education, provide preschool education for children aged 5+ years, make the National Preschool Curriculum compulsory in all kindergartens, and strengthens the monitoring and evaluation of preschool programmes.

2.2 The development plan for primary education aims to provide appropriate and adequate nfrastructure for the provision of compulsory primary education; further reduce the attrition rate; improve reading, writing, and arithmetic (3R) skills; increase the development of social skills and basic computer skills; increase the mastery of Malay language, English language, Mathematics, and Science; improve the reading and writing skills of the Jawi script; reinforce national unity by introducing Mandarin and Tamil languages as subjects in national schools; provide adequate trained teachers; and ensure that 50 percent of primary school teachers are university graduates by 2010.

TERTIARY EDUCATION 1 : MALAYSIA

Aims of Development

4.1 The development plan for community colleges aims to provide training and retraining facilities in various industrial skills as well as providing an alternative route to higher education for school leavers and the local community and industries for education and other purposes that can benefit both parties.

4.2 The development plan for polytechnics aims to further provide and upgrade education and training facilities at semi-professional level in technical, commerce, and service fields and provide an alternative route for higher education for secondary school leavers.

4.3 The development plan for higher educations aims to produce sufficient quality human resources geared towards the needs of the nation and the K-economy. Specifically, the plan aims to achieve democratisation of higher education and socio-economic balance among the different races. Emphasis will be made on science and technology, the use of ICT, and the mastery of the Malay language and other international languages. The plan also aims to improve post-graduate programmes, produce students of excellence and quality, further develop students character, encourage research and development (R&D) of international standards, inculcate a culture of quality in higher education, and promote lifelong learning.

EDUCATION SUPPORT SERVICES 1: MALAYSIA

Aims for Development

5.1 The development plan for support service aims to provide quality support services which will enable students to be better for schooling; minimize school drop-out rates, promote greater academic excellence among students from low-income families; ensure students of low-income families receive the same educational opportunities afforded to other students, and ensure a more efficient and effective management of support services programmes.

EDUCATION FUNDING 1: MALAYSIA

Aims for Development

6.1 The development plan for education funding aims to expand and increase the sources of funds as well as to ensure effective financial management at all levels of the MOE.

AIMS OF THE PLAN: MALAYSIA

The Education Development Plan for Malaysia (2001-2010), henceforth referred to as the Blueprint, takes into account the goals and aspirations of the National Vision Policy to build a resilient nation, encourage the creation of a just society, maintain sustainable economic growth, develop global competitiveness, build a knowledge-based economy (K-economy), strengthen human resource development, and maintain sustainable environment development. The Third Outline Perspective Plan (2001-2010) and the Eighth Malaysia Plan (2001-2005) outlined the strategies, programmes, and projects to increase the nation’s economic growth towards building a united, just and equitable society as well as meeting the challenges of globalisation and Keconomy. The ultimate aim of these long and medium-terms plans is to build Malaysia into a developed nation based on its own mould. These plans have great implications on the national education system.

The Blueprint aims to ensure that all citizens have the opportunity to twelve years of education in terms of access, equity, and quality. The Blueprint also aims to further develop the potentials of individuals in a holistic and integrated manner so as to produce individuals who are intellectually, spiritually, emotionally, and physically balanced in line with the National Education Philosophy. In addition, the Blueprint plans to nurture creativity and innovativeness among students; enhance learning culture; effective, and world-class quality education system; and promote Malaysia as a center of education excellence.

The major thrusts of the Blueprint are to increase access to education, increase equity in education, increase quality of education, and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of education management. The Ministry of Education (MOE) will continue with the equitable distribution of educational inputs to ensure students obtain appropriate learning experiences from all educational programmes.

The Blueprint focuses on the development of preschool, primary, secondary, and tertiary education levels which will be strengthened through the development of support programmes, funding, management, and integration of information and communication technology (ICT).

PRESCHOOL AND PRIMARY EDUCATION 2: MALAYSIA

Issues and Challenges

2.3 One of the pertinent issues for preschool is the low enrolment rate of preschool among children aged 5+ years. At the primary level, the MOE has not met its goal to ensure all Year One school children complete 6 years of primary education.

2.4 The challenge to MOE is to increase accessibility to preschool and primary education to ensure all children aged 5+ years obtain education and all children aged 6+ to 11+ years complete primary education. The MOE faces the challenge to provide all schools with computers and increase the use of ICT in teaching and learning. The MOE also needs to increase equity in preschool and primary education, especially to provide equal access to quality educational facilities for all children; increase provision of special  education opportunities; encourage greater participation of the private sector, NGO’s, community, and individuals in education funding; and ensure sharing of school facilities in the implementation of Vision Schools.

2.5 Other issues at the primary level include the wide differences in  academic and co-curricular achievements according to school types and location as well as low proficiency of Malay and English languages as preparation for secondary education among primary school children. The challenge to the MOE is to increase the quality of preschool and primary education including the provision of adequate numbers of trained teachers and increasing basic education facilities.

ICT IN EDUCATION 1: MALAYSIA

Aims for Development

8.1 The development plan for ICT in education within the next 10 years aims to intensify the development of ICT infrastructure; expand access to and equity for ICT facilities; expand ICT-based curriculum; improve on the assessment and evaluation systems using ICT; emphasise ICT integration in teaching and learning processes; improve on ICT knowledge and skills among students, teachers and personnel; intensify ICT usage in education management; improve on the management and maintenance of ICT equipment; increase R&D efforts in ICT; and increase cooperation between educational institutions and the community towards expansion of ICT in education.

Monitoring and Improving Quality

Given the diversity of understanding and interpretation of quality evident in the different traditions discussed above, defining quality and developing approaches to monitoring and improving it requires dialogue designed to achieve: broad agreement about the aims and objectives of education; a framework for the analysis of quality that enables its various dimensions to be specified; an approach to measurement that enables the important variables to be identified and assessed; a framework for improvement that comprehensively covers the interrelated components of the education system and allows opportunities for change and reform to be identified. As earlier sections of this chapter have indicated, cognitive development and the accumulation of particular values, attitudes and skills are important objectives of education systems in most societies. Their content may differ but their broad structure is similar throughout the world. This may suggest that in one sense the key to improving the quality of education – to helping education systems better achieve these objectives – could be equally universal. Considerable research has been directed towards this question in recent years. As Chapter 2 shows, however, the number of factors that can affect educational outcomes is so vast that straightforward relationships between the conditions of education and its products are not easy to determine. Nevertheless, it helps to begin by thinking about the main elements of education systems and how they interact. To this end, we might characterize the central dimensions influencing the core processes of teaching and learning as follows: learner characteristics dimension; contextual dimension; enabling inputs dimension; teaching and learning dimension. outcomes dimension. Figure 1.1 illustrates these dimensions and their relationships, and the following subsections discuss their characteristics and interactions.

Educational Aims

Ronalds Doll notes that educational aims should address the intellectual or cognitive, the social personal or affective, and productive.

1. Aims dealing with the intellectual dimension focus on the acquisition and comprehension of knowledge, problem-solving, skills and various level and methods of thinking.


2. Aims int he social-personal dimension are concerned with person to society, person to person, and person to self interaction. These aims also subsume the emotional and psychological aspects of individuals and their adaptive aspects with regard to home, family, church, and local community.


3. Aims relating to the productive dimension of schooling center on those aspects of education that allow the individual to function in the home, on the job, and as a citizen and member of the larger society.

To these dimensions, we would add four others:

1. physical, dealing with the development and maintenance of strong and healthy


2. aesthetics, dealing with values and appreciation of the arts


3. moral, dealing with values and behavior that reflect appropriate behavior and belief in the divine and the view of transcendence.