Malaysia's Education Policies and the Law of Unintended Consequences 

Abstract

Since gaining independence in 1957, the Federation of Malaya and now Malaysia has implemented education policies to broaden access, to unify an ethnically diverse population through a common curriculum and language, to enable the disadvantaged to catch up through affirmative action, and to build human capital as the country seeks to become an advanced country in the face of globalization. While some policies, such as enhancing access have achieved their objectives, others, such as unification and development of a national identity, have not. No less important are the unintended consequences of these policies. While some, like the expansion of private higher education and transnational higher education, have been a boon to Malaysian education, others, such as ethnic polarization in education, have been damaging. Some of these consequences, while unintended, have not been unexpected.

Teachers’ Role in Teaching Speaking Against the Incongruencies between Curriculum and Curriculum Implementation

“…The reversal of the same policy was done in 2012 and was also not without controversies, however this shows the complicated relationship Malaysia has with English as a language. This reversal of the Teaching of English in Math and Science is a perfect example of how English Language is viewed as a threat to the Malaysian Identity and also the Malay Language, since the major aims of the opposing groups that calls for the abolishment of the policy is to uphold the Malay Language and the Malaysian Identity as the policy is perceived to be a tool in eroding the sovereignty of the Malay Language and Malaysian Identity (Cheong et al, 2016). This shows the complicated relationship between the National Language and also English where Malaysia have to accommodate the needs to be globally relevant by commodifying English Language Proficiency while at the same time maintaining and preserving investments towards the Malay Language as the identity of the Malaysian citizen (Albury & Khin, 2016).…”

“…Speaking Skill is the most important out of four language skills and mastering it is considered to be the most important aspect in Minister introduced the Vision 2020 to replace the New Economic Policy in the soul attempt to achieve Economic Prosperity, this is done through the production of marketable human capital in the global scale (Mahmoud & Mitkees, 2017). The Prime Minister also added at the time of the launch of the Vision 2020 that Education is to lead the movement of the production of the said marketable human capital (Cheong, Hill, & Leong, 2016). English is seen as a crucial tool to enable a country to compete in the global economy (Lim, Yunus, & Mohamad, 2016;Moon & Park, 2019), at the same it is seen as a tool to prepare a generation of human resources to be able to compete in the global economy that at the same time is growing more and more competitive (Ahmad & Yunus, 2019).…”

Intercultural communication experiences among students and teachers: implication to in-service teacher professional development

“…Particularly for the Malaysian case, since its independence in 1957, the government has implemented educational policies that cater the access and unify ethnically diverse population of students through a common curriculum and language. It enables disadvantaged students to have access to education through affirmative action to build human capital for national identity and unity (Chia, 2008; Cheong et al , 2016).…”

“…This has been documented, emphasized and implemented in the Malaysian educational policies and programmes. For instance, the Razak Report 1956, Rahman Talib report 1963, Cabinet Report 1979 and recent policies had been advocating the notion of national unity as one the aims of educational reforms (Ahmad and Yusof, 2010; Cheong et al , 2016). Nevertheless, it is a slow and difficult process and up until now, Malaysia is still grappling to maintain good ethnic relations with the different ethnic groups in Malaysia (Pusat Maklumat Rakyat, 2009).…”

The Roles of Social Value Orientation and Anticipated Emotions in Intergroup Resource Allocation Decisions

“…However, this policy has raised issues of inequality between the bumiputras and non-bumiputras due to the amount of help the bumiputras receive from the government (Tyson et al, 2017). This in turn has also contributed to segregation between the ethnic groups within the society (Montesino, 2012;Cheong et al, 2016;Tyson et al, 2017). Because of the strained relations between the different ethnic groups, Malaysia is a relevant context in which to investigate differences in allocation toward ingroup and outgroup members.…”