Preliminary-Blueprint-Eng

EXHIBIT 3-26
Examination results, dropout rates and tertiary enrolment rates by gender
Higher dropout rate amongst
male students
Male to female student ratio
20111 Lower tertiary enrolment of
male students
Percent enrolment2 Achievement gap is large and
growing
Female and male percent GPS
(2011)
gap (n = ‘000) Male Female
11
10
9
PMR
UPSR
SPM
8
2006 07 08 09 10 2011
1.1
1.0
0.9
Std
1
1.06
1 Includes vocational and technical schools
2 Includes IPTA and IPTS
SOURCE: Examination Syndicate, Educational Policy, Planning and Research Division, Higher Education Statistics 2011
1.06
Std
6
0.95
Form
5
n = 1,146
44
56
Total
n = 96
54
46
Polytechnic
and
community
college
The “lost Boys” issue: the gender gap is
widening
n = 1,050
43
57
University 2
The gender gap is both significant and increasing (Exhibit 3-26). Girls
consistently outperform boys. The difference in performance is already
evident at UPSR level and increases over the course of a student’s
academic career. Further, boys are more likely to drop out, leading
to a situation wherein the male to female ratio for any given cohort
decreases from Year 1 to Form 5. At university level, female students
comprise up to 70% of the latest incoming cohort in some universities.
This gap between the genders has widened at the PMR and SPM level
over the last five years, a trend that if unchecked, runs the risk of
creating a community of educationally marginalised young Malaysian
men. Fortunately, the trend has reversed in 2011 for UPSR results, with
the performance gap falling from about 11 to 10 percentage points.
Interviews with parents, teachers, and principals suggest that some
boys struggle with the mainstream academic curriculum and would
probably benefit from greater access to vocational training or more
applied coursework. However, the limited number of places in
vocational and technical schools prevents this from occurring. This
problem is compounded by the fact that boys from poor families are
also more likely to drop out from school to start work early in order to
help support their families.
The higher rate of dropouts and lower academic performance among
boys is a cause for concern for the Ministry. Alienated youth are a
source of great social and political instability, as has been seen across
the world in the recent past. It is imperative that Malaysia find a way to
engage boys in education to ensure that they become a valuable source
of human capital.
EXHIBIT 3-27
Distribution of student population receiving KWAPM by school
band in 2011
Distribution of student population receiving KWAPM 1
Percent of schools (2011)
100% =
2,296
75
18
7
Good schools,
Band 1&2
3,858
1 Only primary schools were included, with the exception of 1,060 schools in Sabah and 418 schools in other
states due to incomplete data
SOURCE: Finance Division; National Key Result Area; EMIS database
56
25
19
Average
schools,
Band 3,4,5
42
31
17
52
Poor schools,
Band 6&7
Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013 - 2025
Chapter 3 Current Performance
Schools with 2/3
students receiving
KWAPM
Socio-economic status continues to have a
large impact on student performance
The Ministry has long been aware that socio-economic differences
present a major challenge to achieving equitable outcomes.
Educational disadvantage, whereby how much students’ parents earn
and where they go to school correlates with student achievement, is
a phenomenon experienced by many education systems around the
world. In order to overcome this, the Ministry has committed itself to
eliminating this inequity through a wide variety of initiatives, including
the provision of financial assistance to disadvantaged students.
There are a number of dimensions used to measure the correlation
between a student’s socio-economic background and student
outcomes. Some of these are: parents’ highest level of educational
attainment, state average household income, and the percentage
of students receiving basic financial assistance. The percentage of
students receiving KWAPM financial aid (a fund for disadvantaged
students) has been used as a proxy for socio-economic status, due to
the eligibility criteria of coming from a low-income household. The
evidence consistently demonstrates that students from poor families
are less likely to perform as well as students from middle-income or
high-income households. Schools with higher concentrations of lowincome
students were more likely to fall in Band 6 or 7 on the NKRA
scale (Exhibit 3-27). Similarly, more than three-quarters of all highperforming
schools have less than a third of their students on financial
aid. It appears that the largest achievement gaps in Malaysia are still
those driven by socio-economic status, despite the government’s
significant investments thus far.
3-20