KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 11): The much awaited new education blueprint was unveiled Tuesday by Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin following an almost year-long process to overhaul the national education system.
The Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013 - 2025 maps out the roadmap to build a strong and efficient education system that features universal access all the way through to secondary education.
It also sets out to produce students who perform in the top third of international student assessments, to provide equal and quality educational opportunities for all students regardless of background or socioeconomic status and to instill a sense of common Malaysian identity amongst them.
The blueprint outlines 11 thrusts or “shifts” that tackle everything from infrastructure and manpower needs, improving quality of teachers as well as developing analytical and critical thinking in students.
“If all 11 shifts are implemented effectively, over the 13 years, we will see a big jump in the education system from education focused on access to a system that is focused on quality,” said Muhyiddin in his speech during the launch by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.
The launch was attended by several thousand teachers, academicians, student representatives and ministry staff.
Below are the main points in the blueprint:
• Move from 6 to 11 years of compulsory schooling, starting at age 6+, supported by targeted retention programmes and job-ready vocational training.
• Benchmark the learning of languages, Mathematics, and Science to international standards.
• Launch new Secondary School Standard Curriculum or Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Menengah (KSSM) and revised Primary School Standard Curriculum or Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Rendah (KSSR) in 2017.
• Raise quality of all preschools and encourage universal enrolment by 2020.
• Introduce a standard Bahasa Malaysia curriculum at the primary level, with intensive remedial support for struggling students.
• Up to five hours a week of remedial classes to improve BM language proficiency. Remove classes to end in 2017.
• English Literature will be made compulsory for secondary school students.
• The 70,000 English language teachers nationwide to sit for Cambridge placement test (CPT) in two years. Those who fall short of the set standards will go through intensive skills training programme.
• Encourage every child to learn an additional language by 2025, starting with Chinese, Tamil and Arabic. Other languages to be offered later.
• Islamic Education, Moral Education and civics elements will be reviewed and strengthened by 2017. Under the new curriculum, every primary and secondary school student will have to participate in community service.
• Tighten teacher intake from 2013. Only the top 30% of graduates will be allowed to enter the teaching profession.
• From next year, competency-based selection criteria and enhanced succession planning processes for principals will be introduced.
• Ensure 100% of schools meet basic infrastructure requirements by 2015, starting with Sabah and Sarawak.
• Provide internet access and virtual learning environment via 1BestariNet for all 10,000 schools by 2013.
• 2,500 more personnel from Head Office and state education departments to be deployed to district education departments to support schools by 2014.
• An annual public report on progress against Blueprint targets and initiatives to be published, starting for the next year.
• Education Ministry to provide a single comprehensive handbook on academic and career pathways to be distributed by end 2013.
The public will be able to view the blueprint during open days in the next three months, and it is also available for download from http://myedureview.com/eng.html. The final plan will be presented to the cabinet in December.