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3-5
QUAlITy Of EDUCATION
While national examination results indicate that student
performance has been improving steadily, it is also
imperative that Malaysia compares its education system
against international benchmarks. This is to ensure that
Malaysia is keeping pace with international educational
development. Malaysia’s performance in TIMSS indicates
that student performance has fallen from 1999 to 2007.
The results of the 2009+ PISA also showed that Malaysia
ranked in the bottom third of 74 participating countries,
below the international and OECD average. The Ministry
believes it is important to further evaluate the outcomes
of these assessments to understand any shortfalls in
standards.
The quality of an education system encompasses multiple dimensions.
The assessment of quality in this chapter focuses largely on the
intellectual dimension of academic student outcomes, with the benefit
of available and measurable data. It is acknowledged that the numbers
alone tell only one side of the story. There are other critical aspects
vital to the quality of education such as a student’s spiritual, emotional,
and physical development. Nonetheless, children who are unable to
master core intellectual skills such as literacy and numeracy, as well as
higher-order thinking, will be less likely to succeed in today’s rapidly
changing economy and globalised society.
peer groups used in this chapter
Throughout this chapter, three different peer groups have been
used in making comparisons between Malaysia and other
education systems. While it has not always been possible
to get information for each country in every comparison, the
constituents of all the category groups (in terms of countries)
have been kept constant throughout (Exhibit 3-4). Where OECD
or international averages have been available, these have also
been included in the comparison groups.
Top-performing Asian systems such as South Korea, Japan,
Hong Kong, and Singapore
Southeast Asian neighbours such as Indonesia, Thailand, and
Singapore
Comparable GDP per capita countries (Purchasing Power
Parity (PPP)-adjusted) such as Romania, Mexico, and Chile
Student performance in national examinations has consistently
improved each year. However, in this day and age, internal
comparisons are no longer enough to ensure competitiveness on the
world stage. Over the past two decades, international assessments
have emerged as a way of directly comparing the quality of educational
outcomes across different countries and across systems. These
assessments concentrate on Mathematics, Science, and Reading,
and include an examination of the cognitive skills involved in their
effective application. While they paint an incomplete picture of
schooling outcomes, they offer insight into the real strengths and
weaknesses of important areas of education, including the use of
essential skills such as analytical reasoning, application, and capacity
for continued learning. In this regard, they provide useful perspectives
on Malaysia’s student performance relative to other systems. To gain
an understanding of how Malaysia’s students fare, the results of the
country’s participation in two major international assessments were
examined: TIMSS and PISA.
Student performance in national examinations
is improving
Malaysian students’ performance in the three national examinations
(UPSR, PMR, and SPM) has shown fairly constant and even improving
outcomes. Two common measures used to assess outcomes are the
school Grade Point Average or Gred Purata Sekolah (GPS) and
percentage of students achieving passing and excellent grades. From
2004, both these measures have shown an improving trend in terms of
absolute values across all three national examinations (Exhibit 3-5).
EXHIBIT 3-4
Profile of peer countries
Number of Number of Number of GDP per
schools students teachers capita
(unit)
(‘000)
(‘000)
(PPP-adjusted)
Malaysia
ASEAN peers
10,000 5,400 410 14,591
Indonesia 256,460 45,746 2,748 4,325
Thailand 35,865 10,936 628 8,554
Singapore
Asian Tigers
356 511 30 57,936
South Korea 19,974 7,602 469 29,004
Hong Kong 1,105 781 52 46,503
Japan 37,581 14,887 1,050 33,753
Comparable GDP per capita
Mexico 241,184 29,854 1,454 14,498
Chile 10,052 3,059 170 15,732
Romania 6,439 2,735 199 14,287
Note: Education data for basic through pre-tertiary (2010 or latest year available)
SOURCE: Ministry of Education; Department of Statistics; World Bank