Preliminary-Blueprint-Eng

3-17
EQUITy IN EDUCATION
As with most countries, there are significant variations in
outcomes in Malaysia across states, districts, schools,
socio-economic class, and gender. Some of these
achievement gaps have narrowed over time, which is a
major step forward towards ensuring that every school is a
good school. Nonetheless, socio-economic class remains
the largest driver of student outcomes in Malaysia.
Although this is a common problem in many countries
around the world, it is of the utmost importance that the
education system seeks to combat the fact that a child’s
academic performance is often largely dependent on
family income.
Since independence, equity has been a goal of the Malaysian education
system. The World Bank Report (2011) acknowledges that Malaysia
is relatively successful in pursuing its ambitions: “For primary
schools, we found a statistically significant relationship between
public expenditure and district-level SES (soci0-economic status); the
analysis suggests that public expenditure is progressive.”
Gaps in outcomes remain, however, and when these gaps are
associated with non-academic factors they are always a source of
concern, however small or large they might be. This section examines
each of the present sources of inequity in turn: between and within
states, between rural and urban schools, by student’s socio-economic
background, school type and gender, and between public and private
schools. The data gathered indicates that overall, gaps still remain
in each of these categories, with the greatest gap being caused by
differences in students’ socio-economic status.
EXHIBIT 3-22
Comparison of performance across states for UPSR and SPM 2011
Average percent GPS for 2011
UPSR SPM
81.3
72.8
W.P. Putrajaya
Kelantan
71.3
Terengganu
70.8
N. Sembilan
70.8
Melaka
70.5
Johor
70.3
W.P. Kuala Lumpur
70.0
Pahang
69.8
P. Pinang
69.5
Selangor
67.8
Perak
66.5
Kedah
65.3
Perlis
63.5
W.P. Labuan
60.8
Sarawak
-33% 54.3
Sabah
SOURCE: Examination Syndicate
44.8
45.3
46.4
45.4
44.4
48.0
46.0
46.4
46.2
42.2
41.3
39.3
48.6
40.1
38.8
-33%
Achievement gaps exist between and within
states across Malaysia
Not all states perform as well as each other. A number of states have
shown distinct improvements during the past few years, while others
have fared less well. In 2011, there was an almost 20-percentage-point
difference in the UPSR grade point averages between the betterperforming
larger states such as Johor, and the lowest-performing
state, Sabah (Exhibit 3-22). 16 out of 20 of the lowest-performing
districts in UPSR examinations, and 10 out of 20 in SPM, are in Sabah
and Sarawak.
There is also a high degree of variance within states, although some
states have demonstrated that closing the achievement gap between
school districts is indeed possible. While facing many of the same
constraints as other states, such states have performed much better
and have thereby effectively reduced inequity.
Johor, for example (Exhibit 3-23), does a much better job than
many other states in reducing the variation in performance between
schools at the primary school level for UPSR (refer to Chapter 4 for
a case study of how Johor has managed to achieve this result). Other
states like Kelantan, Penang, Sabah, and Sarawak, however, appear
to struggle, exhibiting a wide spectrum of performance across school
districts within these states.
Digging deeper into the next level of performance—schools—it
becomes apparent that Malaysian schools are spread across the
performance spectrum. This wide range in school outcomes is noted in
the NKRA school bands, which draw upon both grade point averages
for national examinations and school self-assessments. In 2011, 21%
of primary schools were in Bands 1 and 2 versus 3% in Bands 6 and
7, while 11% of secondary schools were in Bands 1 and 2 versus 8% in
Bands 6 and 7.
58.0