The quality education in modern world had becomes a main concern for any parents who want their child to excel in academic qualifications, in order to have a better future in their carrier, with better wages. The government in any country spends a great amount of fund in dealing with education, which is important in human capital development. Since educational literacy is relative to prosperous economic development for a country, no one can ignore its importance to the society. Some renowned international assessment such as OLIMPIAD, TOEFL, TIMSS, or PISA has being used to evaluate the students academic performance throughout the whole world. But, Malaysia, which is a modern nation, has to deal with a problem, where its assessment performance ranking had decline almost every year. Its assessment performance has nothing different with other third world countries such as African countries. The deteriorating of academic performance might causes by over intervention by political institutions and ineffectiveness of policy implementations. Should education over intervenes by politics, such as what happened at North Korea, Cuba and China? This kind of incident do happened in Malaysia, where the over intervenes by politics in education had causes the deteriorating of academic performance among Malaysian students.

This book examines Malaysia’s educational landscape, providing a contemporary study of key themes that have emerged in this multicultural, multi-ethnic society, as it attempts to shift from a middle-income to a high-income nation. Combining contributions by scholars from various fields—such as economics, history, sociology, political science and, of course, education—the book provides richer insights into Malaysia. Offering a unique resource, it will be of particular interest to educators, researchers, students, policymakers and members of the public who want to be updated on the latest trends and challenges in Malaysian education.

Malaysia's highly centralized and tightly controlled system of education fails in educating and integrating the young. It is also ill suited for a plural society. Instead of the present rigid and uniform system, the writer calls for one that is flexible and diverse, but with a core of commonality. There should also be private sector participation to provide competition and spur innovation. Achieving this requires radically changing the ministry of education from one obsessed with strict top-down command, to a more democratized model with power and responsibilities delegated to the periphery. The minister is less a drill sergeant barking out orders to his raw recruits but more of a symphony conductor coaxing the best out of his skilled musicians. The reforms suggested here will make Malaysians fluently bilingual in Malay and English, science literate, and mathematically competent, as well as foster a common Malaysian identity.

Education in multiethnic societies is a subject of considerable debates in almost all parts of the world. These debates have invoked strongly-felt positions between competing ethnic groups over a host of issues that have a profound impact on the nation building process. Apart from deep-seated issues arising from contrasting internal demands over educational rights and equality, emerging issues arising from external influences such as the global spread of English as a result of globalisation have also impacted the nation building process of multiethnic societies. It is against this context that educational issues in multiethnic societies merit our attention. In the case of Malaysia, discourses over these issues are particularly intense and hotly contested by the different ethnic groups. This is primarily because of the extreme difficulties in mediating these complicated issues which are impinged by competing socio-cultural, economic and political interests. This book explores the contested terrains of education in multiethnic Malaysia. It comprises seven chapters that cover three crucial areas of educational provisions and delivery, namely education of ethnic minorities, education and national integration, and educational language policy. These three crucial areas are often the prime concerns of policy makers in multiethnic societies who have to tread a thin line in resolving these issues which are underpinned by intense coterminous interests and inter-ethnic competition, and having the potential to generate conflicts, contestation and power struggle. As far as the Malaysian policy makers are concerned, their efforts in resolving these issues have not been overly successful. It is most unfortunate that their policy decisions are at times influenced by competing political and ethnic interests rather than guided by sound theoretical underpinnings that could put the educational development of the country on a stronger platform and a clearer trajectory.

The purpose of this book is to contribute to contemporary debates about alternative ways of teaching Moral Education in Malaysia by including the voice of students. Moral Education in the Malaysian setting is both complex and compulsory. This book explores alternatives to the current somewhat dated approach. It seeks to discover what young adolescents describe as moral dilemmas, how they approach them and what they find useful in resolving these moral problems.

Since independence in 1957, Malaysia has become a globally-recognised industrial trading partner. With a 60% Muslim population, it also enjoys the reputation of being a moderate and peaceful nation. However, with just a short time left to realising its Vision 2020 of developed nationhood, the pathway of nation building still seems ambiguous. There is a brewing tension in its race and ethnic relations which has permeated the various fronts, namely politics, society, economics and education. This book analyses the education policies that have been formulated and implemented in Malaysia since independence. It demonstrates how these policy enactments have influenced the nation’s growth and transformation, and the challenges faced in creating a model of equity and multicultural co-existence among its racially and ethnically diversified people. Shedding light on these issues, it points towards the major mending that is needed for Malaysia to become a truly developed nation. Chapters include: Education of ethnic minorities in Malaysia: Contesting issues in a multiethnic society Access and equity issues in Malaysian higher education Graduate employability in government discourse: A critical perspective This comprehensive book is a case study on Malaysia that will supplement researchers and advance students in their understanding of a multi-racial society’s perspective and attitude towards education.

Part of a mini series of Focus books on COVID-19 in Malaysia, the chapters in this book address the pandemic’s impacts on education and literacy. Covering a range of teaching and learning challenges impacting learners and teachers, the contributors highlight the pervasiveness of the pandemic on Malaysian society and how Malaysians have found ways to cope. They focus mainly on students’ COVID-19 narratives, digital and health literacy issues, language and new vocabulary. This is an opportunity to witness how researchers from multiple disciplines can join forces during challenging times. There are a great many lessons to be learned from the successes and failures in responding to the pandemic and the measures that have been necessary to contain it. A fascinating read for scholars and educators with an interest in crisis management in non-Western contexts, especially those with a particular interest in Malaysia, or Southeast Asia more generally.

This book provides theoretical and empirical discussions around the impact of MOOCs and other pedagogical strategies for online learning in international contexts. Through discussions of inverse blended learning and other teaching and learning approaches, Part I navigates the pressing conceptual issues around global online education. By analyzing the Malaysia MOOC Initiative—the first governmental MOOC project in the world—Part II offers insight into the developmental strategies, learning design, and integrative approaches of these pioneering efforts. Edited by leading scholars in the field of globalized online learning, this volume offers a valuable contribution to research around collaborative initiatives between governments and universities, especially ones dedicated to open and distance education.

The social, economic, religious and political problems of the present can be traced entirely to our education system. The way our schools, universities and religious institutions managed education expired 30 years ago, and we, therefore, need a new perspective for our country to move into the future and into the global market. Our education was premised on the production of workers as ‘tools’ to man the industry that would produce rapid growth. We have excelled at producing workers through our education industry, and they find themselves placed in a world of communication technology, ill-equipped to deal with technological, political and social changes. The old social, political and religious narratives that served as the foundation for the education constructs in the past must now change into a more inclusive, tolerant and exploratory construct in order to create real intelligence, and innovation that drives the entrepreneurship of ideas as well as social and political revolution. This book asks the questions that the government does not want to ask, does not care to ask, and does not even know how to ask about the ways in which our schools, universities and religious institutions must readdress the issue of education in a global and fast-changing world where the old order of work, play, learn, and communicate have vastly changed.