Why Malaysian parents are choosing vernacular schools over national schools

My grandniece T. Ushalini started schooling on 11 March, the beginning of the 2024 school year in Malaysia.

I was surprised that my niece Praba and her husband had enrolled their daughter in a Tamil school instead of a national school. Another couple I know also enrolled their daughter in a Tamil school.

Praba told me: “The proximity of the school to our house is one factor. More importantly, Ushalini gets to learn Tamil - the language, culture, activities included.

“We also feel that Tamil schools are more deeply involved in different kinds of science, maths and English competitions.”

Tamil schools give importance to science, English

This, she noted, demonstrated that Tamil school administrators were keenly aware of the importance of science and English in the ever-changing technological world of today and tomorrow.

Increasingly I am hearing from many parents that the quality of Tamil schools has improved and that most Tamil school teachers are very committed.

Praba, and the other couple, are among an increasing number of Tamil parents sending their children to the 523 Tamil schools in Malaysia.

This development, however, is not confined to Tamil schools. It is in fact more pronounced in the 1,200-plus Chinese schools, and has been so for some years.

In addition, Chinese schools have become popular with Malay parents in recent years.

Chinese schools becoming popular with Malay parents

In November 2020, then education minister Mohd Radzi Md Jidin told Parliament that the enrolment of non-Chinese pupils, particularly Malays, in Chinese schools increased from 9.5% in 2010 to 15.33% of total Chinese school enrolment in 2020.

However, he did not state the number of pupils in these schools. But in 2013, it was reported that there were about 80,000 non-Chinese in Chinese schools nationwide.

About 1% of the enrolment in Tamil schools comprised pupils of other races.

Malay pupil enrolment in national schools between 2010 and 2020 was between a consistent 93% and 94%, while Chinese enrolment showed a declining trend from 1.17% cent in 2010 to 0.73% in 2020, the minister had said.

"The enrolment of Indian pupils also dropped from 3.15% to 2.63% within the same period," he had added.

Majority of pupils in one Chinese school are Malays

It was reported on 20 March that all the 20 Year One pupils at SJK (C) Chi Sin in Batu Kikir, Negri Sembilan, are Malays. The small Chinese school has only a total of 66 pupils and 62 of them are Malays. Only four are Chinese.

According to another report, 27 of the 42 pupils at the SJK (C) Khai Chee in Kuala Kangsar, Perak, are Malays, with three Indians and the rest Chinese.

The rise in the number of Malays in Chinese schools and the drop in the number of non-Malays in national schools over the past two decades has coincided with increasing calls from some Malay groups and politicians for the closure of vernacular schools which they blame for racial polarisation.

As I wrote recently, the issue erupted again when an academic, professor Teo Kok Seong, said that Chinese and Tamil schools were a barrier to national unity. Others joined in, calling for vernacular schools to be closed or “reviewed”.

Those who are calling for the shuttering of vernacular schools should ask why an increasing number of non-Malay parents are shying away from sending their children to national schools.

I asked around and the answer was the same: national schools are no longer national in character and the quality of teaching has dropped.

A parent in his forties said the environment in national schools was no longer “Malaysian”. Another, whose son is also in a national school, said national schools were beginning to resemble Islamic religious schools.

National schools have turned into religious schools claim

But this claim that national schools have become Islamic in nature is not new. Many others, including former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, have said it.

In fact, Mahathir has criticised the Islamisation trend in national schools on numerous occasions in recent times.

On 22 December 2018, in his second stint as prime minister, he said: "Someone changed the curriculum in the school, and now the national school has become a religious school.

"They are all learning about the religion of Islam and not learning anything else. And as a result, the graduates or the people who are passing in the school are not very conversant in things that are useful for them to get jobs, but they are very good ulama.

"And then you have too many ulama, they always differ from each other and then they mislead their followers and they quarrel with each other.

"That is the problem we face now,” he said at the annual dinner of his alma mater Sultan Abdul Hamid College in Kedah. He said he planned to overhaul the system, but his government fell before he could do this.

In 2021, Mahathir again claimed there was an overemphasis on Islam in schools, saying: “It’s almost as if every student is going to be an ulama.”

In August 2013, former deputy higher education minister Saifuddin Abdullah said at the Seventh Annual Malaysian Student Leaders Summit that there was a problem with the quality of education in national schools.

"There is a push and pull factor why non-Malay parents don't send their children to national schools. It's mainly about quality," he said adding that even Malay parents were sending their children to Chinese schools.

Saifuddin noted that many national schools were becoming like Islamic religious schools.

"Even I, as a Malay Muslim, got that feeling. My standard three daughter was singled out because she was not wearing a baju kurung,” he said.

Professor Teo, the man who reignited the latest vernacular schools debate, had, earlier on 8 September 2020, in saying vernacular schools were an obstacle to national unity, also called on Putrajaya to stop the “Islamisation” of national schools.

Teo had claimed that the government was giving in to Islam-based NGOs, with the result that national schools were looking more like Islamic religious schools. This was why non-Malay parents were sending their children to vernacular and private schools, he had claimed.

Why some are pushing for the closure of vernacular schools

I hope I’m wrong but I am beginning to suspect the reason some NGOs and politicians are continually pushing to abolish Chinese and Tamil schools is their performance and rising popularity.

I think these groups fear that national schools will become the second choice for most Malaysian parents in the long run, or at least have about equal enrolments.

I suspect they fear that national schools will be left behind in academic and other fields. They probably fear that vernacular schools – due to their performance and popularity – are becoming a threat to national schools.

This is because, as we saw above, more and more parents – including Malay parents - are choosing to send their children to Chinese and Tamil schools.

Why more Malay parents are choosing Chinese schools

Malay parents want their children to learn Mandarin, in addition to BM and English, because they see this as an advantage in meeting future challenges, especially in a world where China plays an important role.

Even the National Union of the Teaching Profession has acknowledged this, with its deputy president Abd Ghani Zainudin saying on 19 February that one reason Malay parents were sending their children to Chinese schools was so that their children could learn Mandarin, in addition to Bahasa Malaysia and English

Malaysian Muslim Teachers Association president Mohd Azizee Hassan was quoted in the New Straits Times of 19 February as saying that the improved quality of teaching and learning in science and mathematics, particularly in vernacular schools, had motivated Malay parents to send their children to such schools.

Can you blame parents for wanting the best for their children?

Knowing that education is the key to future success and well-being, can you blame parents for wanting to send their children to schools that stress on future-looking education?

The fact that an increasing number of parents, including my niece, are sending their children to vernacular schools indicates where their hopes lie.

And no one should take this hope away from them.

A.Kathirasen is a veteran Malaysian journalist/editor who has been writing columns, with breaks, in newspapers and online since 1981. All views expressed are the writer's own.

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