CHAPTER 1 1.0 Introduction - DSpace@UM - University of Malaya

schools were taken over by the British administration which provided financial aid to
manage the schools. There were 788 aided schools in the Straits Settlements and the
Federated Malay States. The main objective of education was to provide 3Rs and
some vocational skills so that they could become either farmers or fishermen.
Training of Malay teachers started in the year 1884 in Teluk Belanga, Singapore. To
meet the demand for qualified Malay school teachers, Sultan Idris Training College
was established in Tanjong Malim in the year 1922. In 1935, Melaka Malay Women’s
Training College was setup up to train Malay women teachers. However, the British
Administration did not take the initative to set up secondary Malay medium schools.
The British government and the Christian missionaries introduced English education
to Malaya. Curriculum and syllabus followed the grammar schools in Great Britian.
Teachers came from England and they taught in the government and Christian
missionary schools.
The first English school is the Penang Free School established in 1816 and the first
government English school was built in Kuala Lumpur in 1890. By 1938, there were
56 government aided, 59 and 106 private English schools throughout Peninsular
Malaya. English schools were established in the urban areas; (MCKK) Malay College
in Kuala Kangsar was established in 1905 to train administrators for the Malayan civil
service. There were few teacher training programmes during the British rule. The first
normal teacher training programme was started in Kuala Lumpur in 1905 and Penang
in 1907. Raffles College started a Diploma in Education programme in the year 1905.
University Malaya was establishedn in Singapore in 1949.
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