The normal pathway for Malaysia education system is primary school, secondary school, and lastly the local or international college and university. Preschool education before enter the primary school is not a must at the moment. However, the ministry of education wants to standardize the entire syllabus used in all the kindergarten in Malaysia. This is to ensure the credibility of the all kindergarten established. It normally takes 2 years to complete. It takes 6 years to complete the education in primary school, primary one to primary six. There are Malay, Chinese and Tamil primary school. Normally, the Malay will enter the Malay primary school and so for the Chinese and Tamil student. As 1 Malaysia is introduced, the government encourages whereby the Chinese enter the Malay primary school and so for. The syllabus used is uniform throughout the whole Malaysia. There is one government examination which undertaken by primary 6 student, UPSR.
For the secondary education, students can either choose to enter the government subsidized or private secondary school. For the government subsidized secondary school is called Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan. Translated to English is national secondary school. Same as the primary school, all the syllabus used is uniform. The communication language in the school is Malay. However, the other language such as Mandarin and Tamil is allowed to use by the other race of student. For a secondary student, they will take up to 12 subjects for the five years study. For the science stream student, they learn Mathematics, Additional Math, Biology, Chemistry and Physics in English form. This system is introduced by Dr Mahathir as a way to enhance and improve the student’s English level. The private secondary school is subsidized by the private and actually it is not recognized by the government. The reason given is the private secondary school education system does not match the national education system. The syllabus used is totally different from the secondary school subsidized by the government. There are 2 government examinations, namely PMR and SPM. PMR is for the form 3 student while SPM is for form 5 student.
For the tertiary education, students can choose to further their study in STPM, diploma, foundation and matriculation. Upon finish the pre U programs, they are able to obtain their degree or PhD.
