Education in Malaysia

Education in Malaysia is overseen by the Ministry of Education (Malay: Kementerian Pendidikan). Although education is the responsibility of the Federal Government, each state and federal territory has an Education Department to co-ordinate educational matters in its territory. The main legislation governing education is the Education Act 1996.

Education spending usually makes up about 14 per cent of the annual national budget, the biggest allocation among all.^[2] The education system in Malaysia is divided into five stages: preschool education, primary education, secondary education, post-secondary education and tertiary education.^[3] It is further divided into national and private education. Education may be obtained from the multilingual national school system, which provides free education for all Malaysians, or private schools, or through homeschooling. International and private institutions charge school fees. By law, primary education is compulsory. Secondary education is expected to be compulsory.^[4] Standardised tests are a common feature as in many Asia-Pacific countries such as the Republic of Korea, Singapore and Japan. Currently, there are 20 public universities, 54 private universities, 39 private university colleges, 10 foreign university branch campuses, 331 private colleges, 36 polytechnics and 105 community college in Malaysia.^[5]