Quality Education: Skills for Learning and Personal Empowerment for Native School Pupils in Malaysia

Abstract

The Education Ministry is committed to implementing the indigenous Education Transformation programme via the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013 -2025 to ensure they receive quality and relevant education in line with current needs. The aim is to raise the attendance rate and encourage 100 per cent of indigenous school pupils' enrolment with special programmes as well as an education transformation programme for the group. In line with the Government's aspiration, the main objective of this study is to examine the quality of education of indigenous school pupils in the district of Kuala Lipis, Pahang, Malaysia. This study used a semi-structured in-depth interview for data collection. Respondents were selected based on purposive sampling and comprised seven candidates: two officers from the Education District Office and Teacher's Training Institute and five schoolteachers around Kuala Lipis. The data for the quality of education of the indigenous school pupils were summarised thematically into two categories: skills for learning (the way to know) and skills for personal empowerment (the way to be). The skills for learning were divided into the pupils' creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. The pupils need encouraging teaching and learning activities to motivate them to participate in the teaching and learning process. One of the best ways is to include music and adventurous activities (e.g., chopsticks and tree climbing) to add more fun to the teaching and learning activities. School teachers must be creative and innovative in the classroom to ensure that learning would always relevant and suitable for their interests. The skills for personal empowerment were categorised into self-management, resilience, and communication. The findings indicated that indigenous school pupils possess the same potential as non-indigenous school pupils and are equally intelligent. However, they need continuous encouragement and motivation to move forward. In terms of resilience, indigenous school pupils could adapt to the changes in the environment, but the adaptation takes time. This study extends the existing literature by examining the factors that influence the quality of education of indigenous school pupils. This study only focused on examining the skills for learning and personal empowerment. Another limitation of this study is that the respondents were the administrators and schoolteachers