Life > Education
Prelude: Age in Education
When writing about ages in education, there are many different ways to write the actual age. This made it confusing when people from places that use different age system writes or explains to each other. I’m going to explain the choice of age system that I use to ensure we all refers to the same age system.
Most people in Malaysia are writing age by year, so people would say that they first get into primary school when they’re 7 years old, but the real age on first schoolday date was actually 6 years old. For example, if you were born on 6 June 2002, you will get into primary school on 1 January 2009 just like everyone else who were born in 2002. You were still 6 years old on 1 January 2009 as you will only turn 7 on 6 June 2009, but you will be counted as 7 years old as most people refers to the year and not the specific date.
However, I’m going to use the exact age by first schoolday date instead of the year-based age when writing about education on my website because it is more accurate. In the earlier example, it meant that I will count you to be 6 years old instead of 7. Furthermore, as we get to higher education levels, the schooling start dates are going to change and no longer fixed to the first day of the schooling year.
General Stages
There are basically three large stages of education in Malaysia: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Primary education teaches you the basic thing that you will need to survive, think about the basic of language and calculation. Secondary education teaches you advanced thing that is beneficial to you and prepares you for the adulthood, usually tailored for your interest. Tertiary education teaches you how to navigate the tough world of highly skilled employment.
Primary Education
Primary education generally includes two small stages under it: preschool and primary school. Preschool is usually informal and optional, for kids up to 5 years old. On the other hand, primary school is more formal and it is mandatory, for kids 6 to 11 years old. Both of these are regulated under Ministry of Education (MOE).
Preschool
There are multiple different types of preschools, and there is no standard syllabus. What do exist, is the formal mandatory training and certification for principals and teachers before they can operate a preschool. Such training make them ready to handle child psychology, ensure they know how to teach the kids, and include courses related to childcare and development.
Primary School
There are multiple different types of primary schools. There is standard basic syllabus for all primary schools that are set by MOE, but there could be additional non-standard syllabus from multiple parties for certain types of primary schools. For example, the Integrated Religious Primary School (SRAI) in Selangor combines the basic syllabus from MOE and additional religious syllabus from Selangor Islamic Religious Department (JAIS). Another example, some international primary school combines the basic syllabus from MOE and the international syllabus from Cambridge Primary curriculum.
Secondary Education
Secondary education includes two small stages under it: lower secondary school and upper secondary school. However, they’re combined most of the time and just referred to as ‘secondary school’. Lower secondary school is mandatory for teens 12 to 14 years old (form 1 to form 3), while upper secondary school is optional but highly recommended for teens 15 and 16 years old (form 4 and form 5). Both of these are also regulated under the Ministry of Education (MOE).
There’s no standardization on how to call the school, in Malay and English. In most instances, they’re written as ‘secondary school’ as that is the official term, but there are secondary school written as ‘middle school’ and some as ‘high school’ even though both of those schools had all students from both lower and upper secondary education. In Malay side of thing, while ‘sekolah menengah’ (‘middle school’) is the standard way of calling all secondary schools, there are some schools that are called ‘sekolah tinggi’ (‘high school’).
There is standard syllabus for basic and advanced subjects (including vocational subjects) for all secondary schools of all stages that are all set by MOE, but there could still be additional non-standard syllabus from multiple parties for certain types of secondary schools. For example, Religious Secondary School (SMA) combines the basic syllabus from MOE and additional religious syllabus from Integrated Dini Curriculum (KBD). Another example, some international secondary school combines the basic syllabus from MOE and the international syllabus from Cambridge IGCSE curriculum.
Tertiary Education
Tertiary education generally includes three small stages under it: preuniversity education, undergraduate education, and postgraduate education. Tertiary education is entirely optional and the age varies a lot. All three stages are regulated under Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE).
Preuniversity
There are multiple different types of preuniversity, each with their own syllabus. The most common preuniversity programme includes the two-year “Form 6” programme in selected secondary schools (Note: Despite sharing the same facility as secondary school, they had different staff and treated differently from the other forms.), the two-year slow-paced or one-year fast-pace matriculation programme at matriculation college, the one-year foundation certification programme in selected university or college, or the three-year diploma programme in most university or college.
Undergraduate
There are multiple different types of undergraduate institution, each with their own syllabus, however all institution that offered undergraduate programme are required to include the two subjects of “Islam and Asia Civilization” (TITAS) and “Ethnic Relation” for all students regardless of religion even if the institution are privately owned.
For undergraduate, all of such institution would be doing Bachelor’s programme, but the semester varies depending on which direction the students had taken in preuniversity. For example, those from “Form 6” programme, matriculation, or foundation programmes might need to take the whole three years (six semesters) for their bachelor programme, while those from certain diploma programme gets to skip to the third semester of bachelor programme via credit transfer.
Postgraduate
There are multiple different types of postgraduate institution, each with their own syllabus. There’s a lot of different levels in postgraduate programme and it all depends on what you had from undergraduate. Usually, people will be taking Master programme, and then taking Doctorate programme. I’ve never took postgraduate programme so I don’t know much about that.
My Education
The summarized flow of my education is as follows.
- I get to a Chinese kindergarten when I was 4 years old as the Chinese primary school that my parents want to send me to later on requires me to be in Chinese kindergarten as a prerequisite.
- After two years in kindergarten, I get to the Chinese primary school when I was 6 years old.
- I ended my primary school after six years after taking the Primary School Achievement Test (UPSR).
- Failing to get to Chinese secondary school due to being too far (there’s maximum range that was set by MOE), I then get to mainstream secondary school.
- I was still taking Chinese language for the lower secondary education despite not able to attend the actual class as it clashed with Islamic Education.
- I ended my lower secondary education after three years by taking Lower Secondary Assessment (PMR) and continue on to upper secondary education in the same school.
- Taking pure science stream, I ended my upper secondary education after two years by taking Malaysian Certificate of Education (SPM).
- With the SPM results, I applied to and studied Diploma programme in a local university, and subsequently graduated Diploma.
- With credit transfer, I get to skip to the third semester of Bachelor with Honours programme in a local university, and subsequently graduated Bachelor with Honours as well.
- I’m here now.
Stages of my education, click on the button to read even more details.
