Historical Overview of Malaysia's Experience in Enhancing Equity and Quality of Education : Focusing on Management and Mediation of Multiethnic Issues
Year: 2011
Type: article
Abstract: In Malaysia, it is usually considered that the community and population are dominated by three major ethnic groups, namely Malay, Chinese, and Indian. This scenario, according to Boulanger, (1996), is due to the ‘tri-ethnic schema’ of Malay-Chinese-Indian, which underscores the polarity of ethnic groups and continues to have a decisive influence on macro-level policy and micro-level practice. Within the social and political schema of ‘tri-ethnic’Malaysia, (Malay, Chinese, and Indian) ethnic challenges and bargaining have moulded the formulation and production of education policies in Malaysia since independence. Ethnic composition is the key to understanding the whole picture of Malaysian economic, political and social patterns. In fact, everything social, political and economic in Malaysia is dominated by the considerations of ‘ethnic arithmetic’ (Milne, 1967). This concept designates the pattern of the social arrangement, politics, and economy and has helped to shape the Constitution, and influenced the democratic process and the party system (Ratnam, 1965, p.1). In other words, Malaysians are cognisant of their ethnic background and are being constantly reminded of the fact in all social, economic and political transactions in which they are involved. The different ethnic identities in Malaysian society have also affected the formation of the state and its policy agendas, especially in the education system. This situation has drawn the state into the role of mediating and managing interethnic issues arising from contestation among major ethnic groups for sharing economic, political power and cultural space.
Author: Hazri Jamil
Institution: Universiti Sains Malaysia
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2130895345