THE MALAYSIAN SCHOOLING SYSTEM

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1. Pre - School
This stage of schooling is mainly for children between the ages of 2 and 4. In fact, it is only half a school; the other half is a babysitting center.

Working parents who don't have someone at home to look after their toddlers often send them to a Pre - School, where they will be supervised and fed.

The extent of schooling that takes place here is that kids get to interact with each other, learn to talk, to fight over toys and play with alphabetized building blocks.

2. Kindergarten
This is the first real stage of schooling; students generally come here between the ages of 4 and 6. The kindergarten syllabus is usually completed in one year.

Here, students wear school uniforms, and they have a designated classroom for the whole year.

The subjects taught at all kindergartens include Malay, English, Handicraft, Physical Activity, Art, Music, and Arithmetic.

Chinese is taught in addition to these subjects in Chinese Kindergartens, and Tamil correspondingly in Indian Kindergartens. Regular homework sets are given out, and tests and exams are administered.

Students are graded according to the quality of their homework, their conduct in school, attendance, and performance on the tests and exams.

Report cards are issued at the end of every term [ there are 3 terms per year ], and are to be read and signed by a parent, to ensure that they know what's going on with their child.

3. Primary School
This corresponds quite closely to what's known as the Elementary School in the United States. However, one must be 7 years old to be admitted, since underage admissions are disallowed by the Ministry of Education.

Primary school [ Year One to Year Six ] takes 6 years, so primary school graduates are usually 12 year-olds. Again, there are mandatory school uniforms, and students stay in the same classroom for the entire year [ they switch from year to year though ].

The subjects taught include Malay, English, Physical Activity, Regional Studies [ a somewhat simplified version of Geography ], History, Art, Music, Physical Ed., Math and Science.

Homework, exams and tests are administered in a fashion similar to the Kindergartens [ at a higher difficulty level of course ]. A Chinese Primary School would teach Chinese in addition to these subjects, and Tamil correspondingly for an Indian Primary School.

Students' test / exam results are compared with their classmates', i.e. there is a 'Class Position' assigned at the end of each semester which ranks every student in a class.

3.1 Graduation
At the end of Year Six [ or sixth-grade as Americans call it ], there is a national exam, the Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah [ UPSR ] that is administered across ALL Primary Schools throughout Malaysia.

Students are accepted into Secondary Schools based on their results in this major exam.

Some highly selective Secondary Schools administer their own admissions exam in addition to the national exam, to determine whether to accept the students who apply for admission, as well as to place them in different classes [ separated according to academic ability ].

4. Secondary School
Secondary School [ Form One to Form Six ], sometimes also referred to as 'Middle School', is basically the American Junior High and High School combined.

Instead of the 2 years of Junior High and 4 years of High School, Secondary Schools are typically divided into 3 years of Junior Secondary School [ Form One to Form Three ] and 3 to 4 years of Senior Secondary School [ Form 4 to Form Six ]. This is just a logical division, however, it is usually still the same school.

There are two main types of Secondary Schools : Private Secondary Schools and Public
[ government supported ] Secondary Schools.

The primary difference between the public and private Secondary Schools is the medium of instruction, i.e. the language used to teach the various subjects.

The predominant private Secondary Schools are the Chinese Independent Middle Schools, which is a schooling system very loosely modeled after the Taiwan high school system. All subjects [except for the Language Subjects, Malay and English] are taught in Chinese.

In the government supported Public Secondary Schools, Malay is the medium of instruction.

4.1 Public Secondary Schools
The subjects taught through Junior One, Two, and Three [ Forms One, Two and Three ]
are :

Malay, English, Math, Science, Geography, History, Living Skills, Islamic Studies
[ Muslim students only ], Moral Studies [ non - Muslims ], Music and Art.

At the end of Junior [ Form ] Three, all students have to sit for a National Unified Exam designed specifically for this schooling system, the Penilaian Menengah Rendah [ PMR ].

All students [ whether they pass or fail this exam ] will continue on to Form Four / Senior One [ Tenth Grade ].

Before entering Form Four / Senior One, students are placed in different 'streams'
[ akin to majors ] of education: Science, Commerce, Technical or Arts.

Students are placed in a particular stream based on their PMR results. The best automatically qualify for the Science and Commerce streams, while the weakest are only offered a place in the Technical or Arts streams.

Physics, Chemistry and Biology are compulsory subjects for Science Stream students.

The difference between the streams is that students in the Commerce, Technical and Arts streams are exempt from studying Physics, Chemistry and Biology, and only have a single Integrated Science subject.

The major exam subjects for Commerce Stream students are Commerce, Economics and / or Accounting.

Technical Stream students may choose between the core subjects of Agricultural Science, Home Economics or Advanced Living Skills [eg. Metalwork, Technical Drawing, Building Technology and basic Automotive Engineering ].

Literature and Art are compulsory subjects for Arts Stream students.
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4.1.1 Graduation At the end of Form Five / Senior Two, students sit for yet another National Unified Exam, the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia [ SPM ]. Based on their SPM results, students have two choices :
i. ii.	Apply to enter any of the local universities / institutes of higher learning [ matriculation / diploma program ]. Continue their Secondary School education for another two years in Form Six [ Lower and Upper Six ]. Think of this as Senior Three and Four.
Students who opt for Form Six will sit for the Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia [ STPM ] exam at the end of Upper Six. Based on their STPM results, they may then apply to enter a local / foreign university [ degree program ]. spacer ______________________________________________________________________
Reference : 'The Education System in Malaysia' by Bernard Wong