The Education Act and the Contested Space of Education

The Education Act and the contested space of education

Education occupies a controversial and heavily contested space in Malaysia with multiple claims made on it by what is still essentially a plural society; on issues such as mother tongue education (vernacular schools), the medium of instruction, community and home education and a single curriculum that is prescribed by the Education Act 1996. The Act attempts to balance these claims using nation-building and racial unity as mediating principles, but not all claimants are satisfied by what they find in the Act, or even with the argument that the National Education System (NES) has contributed to greater national unity. To the extent that some of the dissatisfaction stems from facing the monopoly of a single monolithic NES that left little choice to dissidents, that particular issue may have been somewhat mitigated in recent years by the new policy, (itself paradoxical, given the battle for a common education for all), of allowing the expansion of private and International schools teaching to different curricula imported from across the world. The creation of choices in basic and secondary education and even in Islamic education, is the most spectacular change taking place in the education landscape today. The private sector of higher education has for many decades offered a wide choice of courses from all the major countries offering higher education in the English language. The Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2015 makes much of the diversity that is found in our education system;

Whether this will continue in a changing political climate that is beginning to become more inward-looking is a question that only the future will answer.

In June 2024 the Minister of Education announced that a new Education Blueprint was in preparation.