1. DEVELOPMENT OF THE EDUCATION
SYSTEM IN MALAYSIA :
PRE-INDEPENDENCE
ZELA ZULFIKAR & NORHIDAYU
ROSMAN

4. PHASE 1
BEFORE THE BRITISH COLONIAL
PERIOD
(1400 – 1786)

6. PHASE II
DURING THE BRITISH COLONIAL
PERIOD
(1786 – 1956)

7. STAGE
ONE
BEFORE THE
SECOND
WORLD WAR
(1786 – 1941)

8. EDUCATION SYSTEM IN MALAYA
EDUCATION SYSTEM IN SABAH
EDUCATION SYSTEM IN SARAWAK

9. EDUCATION
SYSTEM IN MALAYA
Primary Education
Secondary
Tertiary Education
Education
Vocational &
Technical Teacher Training
Education

10. PRIMARY & SECONDARY
EDUCATION
• Malays were given 6 years of basic
education to achieving these objectives :
– Provide arithmetic skills for the males to start
small businesses upon completion of their edu.
– Promote awareness regarding the importance
of moral values.
– Ensure the proficiency of children of the royal
family in the English language

11. • Indians - same basic edu
– after complete their schools - employed as
labourers in the rubber estates and railway
tracks.
• Chinese - autonomy of setting up their own
schools and designing their curriculum +
employing teachers + text books from China.
– It was not the British Colonial Government’s
responsibility to provide edu for the citizens of
this country. (Resident General of the Federation
of Malay States Report, 1901)

12. Bayan Lepas
Malay School
Gelugor Malay Ayer Hitam
School, Penang Malay
(1826) School, Penang
Malay Schools
(branches of
Penang Free School)

13. Telok Kampung
Belanga Gelam
Malay School School
Malay Schools
(in Singapore – 1856)

15. PROBLEM, SOLUTION
& CONSEQUENCES
• Problem : Malay parents were not interested
to send their children to school even those
schools provided schooling until Standard
Five using Malay language as the medium of
instruction.
• Solution : A. M. Skinner (Inspector of
Schools) started Qur’an recitation classes in
these school.
• Consequence : Increasing number of Malay
schools being built in the Malay States.

16. DEVELOPMENT OF MALAY
SCHOOLS
• British colonial Government enforced the
Compulsory Education Act :
– compulsory for parents to send their children to
school.
– Otherwise, they’ll be fined.
– British appealed to the Malay leaders to
encourage parents to register their children for
schooling.
– Due to good response, more Malay schools
were built.

17. Sayong Malay
School, Perak (1878)

18. • However, due to small number of Malay
parents who willing to send their daughters
to school thus took longer time to set up
schools for girls.
• 1940 : increased number of pupils registered
in Malay schools but the British colonial
Government did not endeavour to set up
Malay secondary school.
– British adhered the policy of educating Malay
children to become farmers & fishermen only.
– Worried that highly educated Malays would
initiate anti-British feelings amongst the people.

19. CHINESE SCHOOLS
• Responsibility of the Chinese community.
Founding &
• Expenditure for building – businessmen &
funding Chinese leaders.
• Teachers brought from China.
• System based totally from China.
Education • Used Chinese dialects.
Chinese • Chinese Government paying attention to
Chinese education abroad.
Revolution
• Chinese schools frequently visited & monitored
1911 by edu officers from China

20. Chinese Education System
Type of School Schooling Duration
Primary School Six Years
Lower Secondary School (Junior Middle Three) Three Years
Upper Secondary School (Senior Middle Three) Three Years

21. DEVELOPMENT OF CHINESE
SCHOOLS:
1920
1913 : • Abolition of the usage of
• Setting up the first Chinese different dialects.
secondary school in Malaya • Endorsement of the Schools
(Singapore) Registration enactment to
restrict the spread of political
influences in Chinese schools.
1945 : 1924 :
- Review of the syllabi in all Chinese • Focus of the British Government
schools to ensure that the new on the development of Chinese
syllabi centered on local context. education arising from an
awareness that nationalist
- Introduction of English & Malay factions were beginning to spread
language in all Chinese schools. anti-British campaigns in Chinese
schools

22. TAMIL SCHOOLS
• Tamils were the biggest group of Indian
migrants to Malaya at that time.
• Forced the plantation owners to set up
Tamil schools for their workers’ children.
• Examples of schools :
– Tamil School in Penang (1816)
– Anglo-Tamil School in Malacca (1850) *exist for only
10 years
– St. Xavier Malabar School in Singapore (1859)

23. DEVELOPMENT OF TAMIL
SCHOOLS
1914 :
1912 :
- Setting up of Tamil
- Enforcement of Labour
schools in urban areas with
Laws.
Indian residents.
1930 :
- Setting up of Tamil Schools Inspectorate & conducting teacher
training courses to overcome the shortage of trained Tamil teachers.
- Introduction of a Malayan syllabus using Tamil, Malayalam & Telegu.

24. ENGLISH SCHOOLS
• Also known as mission schools.
– Because were founded and managed by
Christian missionaries like the Anglicans,
Roman Catholics and Methodists.
– Founded in the Straits Settlements & the
Malay Federated States.
– Most of them has the word “Free” because
they were given the autonomy to accept pupils
of different races & religious backgrounds.

25. Penang Malacca Singapore
Free Free
Free School
School School
(1834)
(1826)
(1816)

26. Anglo-Chinese
Bukit Bintang
School
Girls School and
(Methodist) –
St. Mary
now SMK
(Anglican)
Methodist Ipoh
Anglo-Tamil
Convent schools
School in KL
(girls) & St.
(1897) – changed
schools (boys) –
to Methodist
RC missionaries
Boys School
Other English
Schools

27. Characteristi
cs :
Located in town areas.
Compulsory for Non-Muslim to study
Religious Knowledge
Use the English as the MOI
Received the financial aid & assistance
from the British colonial gov.

28. TEACHER TRAINING
Reason &
Problems Consequences
Ways
BcG brought
Low wages -
teachers from Aware of importance
resign
England of pro development
training for teachers
Wooley
Small num of
Committee (1870)
female teachers
being set up
Shortage of trained
Urgent need for
teachers in Malay
Lack of trained more trained and
schools being
teachers highly qualified
considered
teachers

29. Telok Belanga TTC,
Singapore (1878)
Taiping Malay
Malay Girls TTC, TTC, Perak
Malacca (1935) (1878)
Teacher
Training
Raffles Colleges Malacca Malay
College, Singap TTC, Malacca
ore (1928) (TTC) (1900)
Sultan Idris TTC, Matang Malay
Tanjong Malim, TTC, Perak
Perak (1922) (1913)

30. VOCATIONAL & TECHNICAL
EDUCATION
1900 1905 1918
Establishment of
Treacher Formation of the
Malay
Technical School Technical &
handicrafts made
in KL – train Industrial Edu
its first
technical Commission –
appearance –
assistants in the study need for
Malays with skills
Public Works vocational &
were employed
Department, Tech edu in the
in schools
Survey Dept & Malay states
Malayan Railway

31. 1923 • Set up the Agricultural Training Centre
• Establishment of the Technical School
1926
– Technical TTC (1941) – UTM (1972)
• Establishment of the Agriculture
1931 School in Serdang – train agricultural
officers
• Agriculture School -> Agriculture
1946 College -> Uni Pertanian M’sia (1972)
-> UPM (now)

32. TERTIARY EDUCATION
1938
1905 Formation of
commision to
Establishment of 1929 study the status of 1941
King Edward VII
Establishment of higher edu centres
Medical School Establishment if
Raffles College in in M’sia under the
(S’pore) –> King UM in S’pore
Singapore leadership of Sir
Edward VII
William Maclean.
Medical College
*merging the KE
VII MC & RC to Uni

33. EDUCATION
SYSTEM IN
•
SABAH
Before the administration of North Borneo Smelting Company
Christian missionaries played a vital role.
• many ethnic groups did not have opportunity to receive any formal edu.
• Malays – religious edu.
• Dusun and others – traditional edu of their descendants.
After the administration of North Borneo Smelting Company
• Edu developed at fast rate.
• Missionaries especially from RC began to set up schools in Papar (1981) &
Sandakan such as St. Mary’s Primary School (1883), St. Michael’s Boys School
(1888) and Convent School for Girls (1891)
• English as the MOI in most schools in Sabah.
• Mandarin & Dusun also used as MOI

34. DEVELOPMENT OF
SCHOOLS
1930s : 49 mission schools
1941 : 52 mission schools
1920 (KB) : a primary school established – use
Malay as MOI (Gov-aided)
1930 : Gov-aided schools reached 21 + 7 by
1941
Establishment of Chinese national type primary
schools in Jesselton, 79 private schools (1939)
which included a school in Ladang Getah, Tawau
– Japanese as MOI

35. EDUCATION
SYSTEM IN
SARAWAK before
• Had its own traditional edu system
Brooke family colonisation era.
• People of S’wak (Ibans, Melanau & Kelabit)
did not receive any formal edu. – basic skills
such as hunting.
• Malays – taught Islamic edu. in religious
schools

36. DEVELOPMENT OF
SCHOOLS RC missionaries –
Edu managed by
Kuching &
Christian
During Brooke Kanowit, Anglicans
missionaries,
administration – Sibu & Kuching
Brooke Gov &
(used english as
Chinese
MOI)
community
Brooke Gov :
Hammond Report 1924 : Brooke
outside
: ethic-based Gov set up an Edu
Kuching –
schools were also dept to
Malay,
established in administer the
mandarin &
1940 edu system in
english as
Srwk
MOI

37. STAGE TWO
after THE
SECOND WORLD
WAR
(1946 - 1956)

38. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY
EDUCATION
• Before 1941, the registration of pupils increased but after
Japanese Occupation, both the registration of pupils and
quality of teaching in schools declined
• The centers of high learning (e.g. ;King Edward VII Medical
College and Raffles College) cannot operate – used by
Japanese Government
• Students had no choice but to give up studies
• In 1946, these colleges reopened but required a lot of money
for restoration (facilities/amenities/infrastructure)
• The British colonial Government restructuring the education
system – Cheeseman Plan (1946)

39. CHEESEMAN PLAN (1946)
English language, Malay
language, Mandarin and
Free basic education in all
Tamil language as the
media of instruction for all
medium of instruction in
secondary school
*Did not focus on the issue
of social integration
English language to be a
amongst the multi-ethnic
compulsory subject in all
groups – vanished in 1949
vernacular schools
with the abolition of the
Malayan Union

40. BARNES REPORT (1951)
 Barnes Committee (1950) – to study and
improve the education systems for the
Malays
 Chairman – L.J. Barnes, Director of Social
Training Division, Oxford University
 Failed to bring about an improvement to
the Malay schools without having to
revamp the whole education system
 Barnes Report put forward

41. Conversion of
Malay, Chinese and
Tamil school to
national-type
schools
Establishment of
bilingual schools
Replacement of Jawi
with the Malay and
Scripts with Islamic
English as the
Education
medium of
instruction
Recommendations

42. FENN-WU REPORT (1952)
 Fenn-Wu Report – focused on Chinese Schools
 1951 – Fenn-Wu Committee was set up : Dr
Fenn and Dr Wu
Recommendation :
The Malay language, Mandarin and the English
language became the medium of instruction in
vernacular schools

43. EDUCATION ORDINANCE (1952)
Central advisory Committee – to study
the recommendations contain in
Barnes Repot and Fenn-Wu Report
and seeking a compromise for all
concerned parties.

44. Recommendations
• English schools (English
language as the medium of
instruction)
Five types of • Malay schools (Malay language
schooling as the medium of instruction)
systems • Chinese schools
• Tamil schools
• Religious school
Curriculum according to individual school
systems

45. RAZAK REPORT (1956)
 Cabinet Committee (Tun Haji Abd. Razak b.
Hussien, Minister of Education, Federation of
Malaya) :
– Examine existing education policies including
those pertaining to the Education Ordinance 1952
– Recommend educational changes as deemed
appropriate

46. Recommendation
Malay language as the
medium of instruction
for all stages of schooling
One
common
school
system for
all
Centralized curriculum
and school examination

47. TEACHER TRAINING
1. Kirkby Teachers Training College
 Set up in Kirkby, Lancashire, Liverpool, England
 Reasons :
i. To train teachers from the Federation of
Malaya
ii. To overcome the shortage of trained teachers
2. Brinsford Lodge
 In Wolverhampton
 Responsible to train teachers for lower
secondary schools
 To train potential lectures for the local teacher
training colleges

48. TERTIARY EDUCATION
University Malaya was established in
Singapore in 1949 to fulfill the needs
and aspirations of the young men and
women for higher education

49. THE END