Students In Upper Secondary Schools In Malaysia example essay topic

No two countries have exactly the same structures in their education systems, let alone Malaysia and the United States. In fact, both countries apply different methods in almost every aspect of the general structures of systems. Because each executes a different system, both countries are also facing different education issues. To begin, each country's education system is controlled by different authorities.

Presently, the Malaysian education system is fully governed by the Ministry of Education. All states' Departments of Education are placed under this ministry which indicates that each state must follow the guidelines set by the federal government. Because of this centralized administration, every school in Malaysia uses the same curriculum for each level. On the contrary, no national education system or national curriculum exists in the United States. The federal government does not control what is going on in the schools. Even though each state has its own Department of Education, unlike Malaysia, most of the control of American schools rests in the hands of local school districts.

They set up guidelines only for schools within their districts. All in all, the difference in the education authority in both countries leads to differences in their day-to-day operations. As a result of the difference in authorization, both countries operate different types of schools. In Malaysia, in particular, there are two levels, primary and secondary school. Primary school goes from Standard One to Standard Six and attending kindergarten is not compulsory. Secondary school is divided into two parts, lower secondary from Form One to Form Three and upper secondary from Form Four to Form Five.

Completing this, secondary school graduates can choose to study in several institutions such as universities, colleges, and matriculation centers, or continue another two years in secondary school. There are three standardized tests to be taken and passed, one in Standard Six, Form Three, and Form Five in order to graduate from high school and continue to university. On the other hand, in the United States, school districts are divided into elementary schools, middle schools or junior high schools, and high schools. Elementary schools contain First through Fifth or Sixth Graders including kindergartners. Middle schools contain Grade Six to Grade Eight, while junior high schools contain Grade Seven to Grade Nine.

Following that, students go to high school until Twelfth Grade. Unlike Malaysia, most American school districts typically do not require any examination to graduate from high school. Having passed all of the required courses, a student is then considered a high school graduate. This shows that the United States education is more relaxed compared to Malaysia's. Education courses provided is another difference between Malaysia and the United States. For instance, the level of upper secondary schools in Malaysia and high schools in the United States are approximately the same, yet the courses offered are dissimilar.

All students in upper secondary schools in Malaysia are required to take Malay, English, mathematics, science, history, and Islamic Education (for the Muslims). Then, students can choose other elective subjects on one condition; they must take nine subjects at minimum and twelve at maximum including the core subjects. Usually, they enroll in subjects of a discipline that they are interested in such as business, pure science, social science, accountancy, and literature. American high school students, conversely, are required to take English, mathematics, science, and social studies. They may also be required to take a foreign language and / or physical education. Additional courses such as art, music, home economics, and industrial arts are also offered.

A course is just one or two semesters long, whereas in Malaysian upper secondary schools, subjects take the whole two years to be completed. Apparently, the difference in courses makes the students in both countries different in terms of their study development. Recently, meritocracy has been a hot education issue in Malaysia. People have been debating whether to apply this system in admitting students to the federal universities or to continue using the quota system. The quota system admits students based on race. For instance, at least ten percent bumiputera students must be admitted.

The meritocracy system, instead, selects students based on their qualifications without giving preference to personal backgrounds. Today, the meritocracy system has been launched and is still in the trial period. Only time can tell what will happen in the future. Another hot topic concerns the medium language used in schools. Earlier this year, there was a proposal to change the medium language from Malay to English.

Since then, so many opinions either opposing or favoring this issue have been expressed that the government has finally decided to implement this transformation in stages. To begin, only two subjects, Mathematics and Science, apart from English are to use English as the medium language. However, schools still have not started this transformation because of the possibilities of other problems that may arise such as lack of English knowledge among teachers and problems regarding textbooks. Currently, the Ministry of Education has announced the start of this program in 2003 but, there may be other changes prospectively. In the United States, however, education issues definitely differ from the issues in Malaysia. One of the hottest topics discussed for the past few years concerns year-round schooling.

At present, most schools in the United States operate ten months per year with a two month summer break. Should year-round schooling be applied, schools will operate perennially with the inclusion of short breaks between certain periods. People have been debating whether this system will increase the students' performance in school or vice versa. Some feel that year-round schooling can maintain continuity in studying. Others believe that students will be less committed when they have to study during hot summers.

Obviously, each stand holds to a variety of reasons and evidences to support the suggestion. Until now, this topic has just been discussed and no final conclusion has yet been made. Another controversial, widely-discussed issue is the voucher system, a system that allows parents to apply taxpayer money to private school tuition. The Bush administration has strongly supported the idea of vouchers though Congressional opposition has provided potent evidence to oppose it. Teaching unions protest its practice in public education because of the separation between private and public schools.

So far, only three states have approved the voucher program, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Florida. These issues clearly emphasize that Malaysia and the United States are confronting with different problems in education. To conclude, we can clearly state that the education systems in both countries differ in many aspects: the general structures, curriculum and tests, types of schools and even issues in education. Basically, the education system in Malaysia is thoroughly structured by the federal government; hence, standardization is an important element. Schools in the United States, in contrast, have more freedom to organize their own education system. Thus, most of the issues arise because of the dissimilarities between the systems.

However, apart from all these differences, both countries share something in common; each possesses the same goal - to educate.