Categories of Educational Institutions According to the Level of Financial Support from the Government
The classification is based on the extent of financial support received from the government. The different levels of support have their origins in the way the post-independent government consolidated the different types of schools that had evolved during the colonial period into forming a national educational system. Government funding was the main incentive offered to non-government owned schools to make then conform to a single system of education based on a national curriculum with the National Language as the medium of instruction. The recommendations for the new educational system came from the Razak and Rahman Talib reports. Educational institutions in the NES are divided into three categories under the Act according to the level of support they receive from the government. The categories are;
- government educational institutions or government schools that are established and fully maintained by the government;
- government-aided educational institutions which are those in receipt of capital grant and full grant-in-aid from the government;
- private educational institutions. Private schools of course, get no aid or funding from government, although under s. 34(2) of the EA1996, the Minister is given a discretion to give grant-in-aid to an educational institution not established by him which is a college or a special school.
- Also under s. 52 of the EA1996, subject to such conditions and limitations as the Minister may deem fit to impose, financial assistance by way of grant may be given out of moneys provided by Parliament to an Islamic educational institution which is not maintained by the Minister under this Act or by the Government of a State and which is either an educational institution within the meaning of this Act or is not such an educational institution only because the teaching therein is confined exclusively to the teaching of the religion of Islam.
