Local Education System Ranked 8th in The World

Sources : NST 15/02/11

Preschoolers at a Kemas (Social Development Department) centre in Malacca. One thousand preschools are expected to begin operations this year.

 
KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian education system has been ranked number eight in the world by newsmagazine Newsweek, Education director-general Datuk Abdul Ghafar said in a statement.

He said the achievement was in part due to the initiatives under the NKRA (national key result areas) under the Government Transformation Programme for education.

"The objective is to improve the students' performance holistically, intellectually, emotionally, spiritually and physically.

"The improvement at all levels is very important for developing our human capital to transform Malaysia into a high income nation by 2020."

He added the NKRA for education also aspired to ensure that both quality and affordable education was enjoyed by all Malaysians as well as to improve educational standards.

To date, last year's target of 72 per cent enrolment of preschoolers had been achieved with 1,500 pre schoolers.

He said 315 preschools started operations in January while nine additional pre-school classes started in mid-June last year in the longhouses of Sarawak and community centres in Sabah.

For this year, 715 preschools under the Education Ministry, 1,000 Kemas (Social Development Department) preschools, 50 under the National Integration and Unity Department and 1,000 private sector ones were expected to begin operations.

Deputy Education Director-General Dr Zahri Aziz pointed out that 701,144 children aged four and five were already enrolled in preschools nationwide this year.

On last year's target of 90 per cent literacy and numeracy, he said the overall percentage of literacy among Year One was 85 per cent compared with 64 per cent previously.

This indicated the target set for next year would be achievable, he said.

On the 2010 target of 20 high performance schools, three students from Tunku Kurshiah College came out second in the Special Award category at the Intel ISEF competition held in San Jose, United States for their Natural Oil Boom project.

While another SMK Aminuddin Baki student won various medals for swimming at the 2nd Asean School Games, SEA Age Group, Malaysia Open, 51st Japan Open Swimming Championship, Commonwealth Games and Asia Games.

The SK Bandar 2 won two gold, a silver and two bronze medals at the Mathematics Olympiad.

As announced by the government, the low performing schools (Band 6 and 7) were offered assistance under the School Improvement Programme to help them improve their performance.

The positive outcome of such efforts was reflected in the improved 2010 UPSR results compared with 2009 in these schools.

Zahri added that of the 209 primary schools in Band 6 and 7, 140 (69.4 per cent) showed improvement in the Grade Point Average with some schools achieving up to 40 per cent improvement.