Reimagining Malaysia Part 6: Improving Public Schools

I’ve discussed in Part 5 of the series on how while public education is free, good education is no longer free. We urgently need to reform our public education system. In this article, I’ll discuss two aspects of educational reform that I believe are important, firstly, to maximise student outcome for every taxpayer ringgit; and secondly, to reinvent human resources development in education.

I shall elaborate further.

Maximising Student Outcome For Every Ringgit Spent

Both education blueprints - Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025 (Preschool to Post-secondary Educations)[1] and Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025 (Higher Education)[2] - pointed out that there is a low return on investment in education in Malaysia in term of student outcome compared to other countries.

According to World Bank data, Malaysia’s government expenditure on basic education – from preschool to secondary school – as a percentage of GDP is one of the highest among ASEAN countries and Asian Tiger countries, the latter being South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan and China. See figure below.

Basic Education Spending as a Percentage of GDP

Source: World Bank