Preliminary-Blueprint-Eng

3-3
EXHIBIT 3-2
Enrolment rates at public primary and secondary schools
Percent (1983-2011)
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012
1 Upper secondary schools include vocational and technical schools
SOURCE: Malaysia Education Statistics (2011); Educational Policy, Planning and Research Division (historical publications)
The greatest improvement has undoubtedly been at the upper
secondary level, where enrolment rates have almost doubled in recent
decades, rising from 45% in the 1980s to 81% today (Exhibit 3-2).
This means that 81% of every cohort now completes at least 11 years of
schooling. Automatic progression of students was also instituted with
the goal of addressing the inefficiency of repeating class years and to
reduce dropout rates.
“During the five-plus decades
since independence, there has
been a dramatic improvement
in access to education.”
World Bank (2011)
In parallel, there has been rapid
expansion of preschool education.
Early childcare and associated
development activities have been
an explicit part of the government’s
agenda since 2000 when it signed
on as a signatory to the UNESCO
Education For All declaration. As
a result, around 77% of children
2011
Primary
Lower Secondary
Upper Secondary 1
aged 4+ to 5+ are enrolled in some form of preschool education (either
public or private) as of the end of 2011, a dramatic increase from 67%
in 2009. Still, the government is pushing towards universal enrolment
through the Education NKRA as part of the GTP launched in 2009.
The significantly improved access to education for Malaysians is
accompanied with a similar improvement in attainment over the past
30 years. Malaysia has delivered highly impressive improvements
across many measures. At the most basic level, the youth literacy rate
has risen from 88% in 1980 to near-universal literacy today of 99%,
while the adult literacy rate has increased even more significantly,
rising from less than 70% to over 92% today. The corollary of this is
that the proportion of the adult population (aged 15 and above) with
no schooling has declined from 60% in 1950 to less than 10% in 2010,
while the proportion that has completed at least secondary education
has risen from around 7% in 1950 to more than 75% in 2010
(Exhibit 3-3).