Learning Starts Here
1 Jun 2010
Walk into a classroom (or even a workplace, shop or restaurant) and these days there remains no instance of a single homogenous group anymore. Especially here in “1Malaysia”. What you find instead are various different cultures and groups sharing their setting and yet standing out more than ever as separate entities.
Some 162 nationalities are represented in Malaysian schools. And that doesn’t credit diversity within countries. Cynics and critics of the present administration’s “1Malaysia” branding should reflect on the fact that stressing unity through diversity and respecting individual backgrounds underpins the most successful learning environments.
Take the Ivy League colleges in the United States. To maintain their status as world leaders they now actively source students from around the world, thus ensuring the most vibrant and challenging classroom discussion. Middle and upper class students from North America have similar contributions and life experiences but inject some Asian, African and Latin American candidates into the discussion and the whole group benefits.
This places Malaysia, with her rich native ethnicities, at a distinct ‘home’ advantage. Education prepares young people for the world around them, and what better way to understand the world than to grow up with people of alternative classes, faiths and beliefs?
Malaysian education is perfectly placed to prepare individuals to accept differences, be free from bias or prejudice, develop cultural sensitivity, be more flexible and able to adjust to new surroundings, and it even promotes patriotism. The more people learn of other cultures, the more they analyse their own and truly appreciate the best of their own background.
International students add to this exotic mix and are reaping the benefits of (external and internal) significant investment in education. Malaysia is committed to becoming a knowledgebased economy, which has led to major resources being channeled into education in order to become a leading hub of learning excellence, offering many students the standards they might expect from Singapore or Hong Kong at much more affordable prices. The country is viewed as the best of both worlds and expatriates are perfectly positioned to benefit most.
In fact, such is the strength of education here in Malaysia that it is often the deciding factor for those internationals who choose the location of their next posting.
If you are in the process of sending your child to international school in Malaysia, they will be in good company with over 80,000 students currently enrolled at either primary or secondary level (of 5.3 million schoolchildren in the country as a whole). And they won’t be the only new faces either, with total international school student numbers having risen from only just over 50,000 at the beginning of 2008. That means in just three years student places have grown by 63%.
The growth can be attributed to the June 2006 policy change to allow up to 40 per cent Malaysian children to join expatriates at the 38 international and 12 expatriate schools, a move that has also encouraged more international institutions to open centres of learning here. Prior to 2006, the only Malaysians who could send their children to these schools were those who had lived abroad for at least three years, or had a foreign spouse or had businesses that could attract direct investments for the country.
Those that have are thriving. The British School of Kuala Lumpur doubled their enrollment just in the summer of 2010, after being open less than two years. Meanwhile, Marlborough College, one of England’s oldest and most respected independent schools announced it would open its first overseas campus in the Iskandar region of Johor in 2012.
It’s not purely the new that are enjoying success, however. The Alice Smith School is the grande dame of Malaysian international schools and is currently enjoying something of a renaissance. The same could be said for other old favourites such as International School of Kuala Lumpur (which has over 1,600 students alone), Garden International School and the International School of Penang.
Meanwhile the expatriate schools for the French, German, Taiwanese, Japanese and other nation-centric centres of learning are also thriving, not just as the number of internationals grows but as Malaysians and other nationalities explore the benefits to their future working prospects of studying in a foreign tongue.
The college and university scene is just as vibrant with 70,259 international students made up of 150 different nationalities registered on December 31, 2008, according to the Ministry of Education. Currently 33 private and 20 public universities, 37 public community colleges, four foreign branch campuses, plus around 500 private colleges make up the bulk of Malaysia’s higher education offering.
In addition to competitive course fees and an extensive selection of popular programs at numerous universities, many of which offer twinning degrees with qualifications from renowned institutions overseas, there are also foreign campuses enabling students to attain prestigious university qualifications in a country with lower living expenses (on average as little as US$4,000 per year).
Among the multitude of reasons that Malaysia makes such an attractive—and successful— learning destination is the wide use of English; both from the perspective of native speakers and those who understand the language’s importance globally.Economically the country is sound and geographically it is safe from natural disasters. Malaysia also has a good infrastructure with transport links that are improving all the time.
And in terms of bureaucracy the country also makes things easy for foreign students with hassle-free enrollment procedures and entry. Students can even work up to 20 hours a week during their studies to earn extra income.
Socially people are friendly and the exceptional dining, shopping and travel opportunities speak for themselves.
Another factor that ranks high among both current and prospective students is Malaysia’s location in the very heart of South East Asia. The country is a gateway to several global superpowers and the most rapidly developing places on Earth.
In October 2010, the Malaysian government laid bare its commitment to education, believing it essential to cultivating quality human capital that will drive the country to fully developed status.
“Education and training will be restructured and strengthened” announced Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, the Prime Minister and Finance Minister as he gave the largest share (22.8% or RM39.5billion) of his budget to the education sector.
RM6.4bn is allocated to building and upgrading schools, facilities and equipment, with RM576bn slated to help recruit nearly 400 native-speaking English teachers who will train local teachers. There are also rewards planned for high-performance and trust schools with more planned to open by 2012.
Preschool provision is also on the up with more Taska childcare centres planned and graduate teachers to be appointed. The target is to get nearly threequarters of children of preschool age into a nursery-type school by the end of 2011.
At the other end of the age scale, the aim is to grow the number of doctoral postgraduates and the research departments, both fundamental and market driven, of universities.
Whatever the age group or level of education, the Malaysian government has made it clear that it intends to focus on providing opportunities for the less fortunate members of society. However, what is just as clear is that the quality at the highest end, at international schools and the best universities, is among the finest in the region and should give expatriates every reason to feel confident about the education they or their children will receive during their time in Malaysia.