Generally, the national education system comprises pre-tertiary education (under the jurisdiction of the Ministry Of Education) and tertiary education (under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Higher Education).
Under the national education system, a child begins his/her education from pre-school education at the age of four (4). The government provides 11 years of free primary and secondary education.
Levels of Education
The national education system comprises the following levelsof education
Pre-school/Kindergarten education for children from age 4 to 6
Primary education from age 7 to 12 (Standard 1 to Standard 6 for 6 years)
Secondary education from age 13 to 17(Form 1 to Form 5 for 5 years)
Post-secondary education / Pre-university from age 18 (for 1 to 2 years) - either Form Sixth (for 1.5 years) - or Matriculation (for 1 year)
Tertiary education
- Polytechnics / College education from age 18 - Teacher Training Institutes from age 18 - Undergraduate studies from age 19/20 (for 3 to 5 years) - Postgraduate studies [Master's Degree or Ph.D studies, after acquiring the Bachelor's degree] (for 1 to 5 years)
In the Malaysian education structure there are six categories of educational institutions which are governed by two ministries. They are:
Pre-Tertiary Level (The governing authority of pre-tertiary schools is the Ministry of Education)
Government-aided Schoolsthat follow the Malaysia National Curriculum & National Examination.
Private Schools thatfollow the Malaysia National Curriculum & National Examination.
Foreign SystemSchools, i.e. international schools and expatriate schools Internationalschools follow an international curriculum and use English while theexpatriate schools follow the national educational system of othercountries using the respective national language of these countries asthe medium of instruction. These schools are not bound by the EducationAct 1996 but are under the supervision of the Ministry of Education.
Note:
There are 2 categories of public-funded primary schools, namely - National Schools (the medium of instruction is Malay language) - National-type schools : Chinese National-type Schools (the medium of instruction is Chinese language) : Tamil National-type Schools (the medium of instruction is Tamil language)
In all schools, Malay language is a compulsory subject and English language is being taught as a second language.
Tertiary Level (The governing authority of higher educational institutions is the Ministry of Higher Education)
Government-fundedpublic universities, polytechnics and colleges
Private highereducational institutions which include: - non-university status institutions such as private colleges - university status institutions such as private universities - foreign university branch campuses e.g. Monash University Malaysia andThe University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus English is the medium of instruction in most of the private highereducational institutions.
Medium of Instruction
English is primarily being used as the primary medium of instruction at most of the private higher educational institutions. However, the bachelor's degree courses by the public universities are taught in the national language, that is, Bahasa Melayu, while their post-graduates studies are conducted in English.
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