Malaysia: More Malays qualifying for higher ed with marked O-level scores

[Harold F. Schiffman]

via the edling-list:

"MALAY students have made the most significant strides in the national
examinations over the last 10 years, with more of them attaining three or
five O-level passes. They also displayed marked improvements in the
English Language, said a statement from the Ministry of Education (MOE)
yesterday.""

MAKING THE GRADE

Thursday December 7, 2006

More Malays qualifying  for higher education with marked O-level
improvement

- Sheralyn Tay

MALAY students have made the most significant strides in the national
examinations over the last 10 years, with more of them attaining three or
five O-level passes. They also displayed marked improvements in the
English Language, said a statement from the Ministry of Education (MOE)
yesterday. Overall, 89.5 per cent of Malay students received three O-level
passes last year, compared to 85.6 per cent in 2004. Some 62.8 per cent of
them attained five O-level passes in 2005, up from 59.3 per cent in 2004
and 47.9 per cent in 1996, marking an upward trend in the performance of
Malay students over the last 10 years. The overall proportion of students
with at least five O-level passes is 80.7 per cent.

More Malay students are also making it to secondary and tertiary
institutions. While they still fall short of the national average in most
performance indices, such as the number of O-level passes and in subjects
such as English, Maths and Science, their performance in Mother Tongue is
the best among all student groups, continually exceeding the national
average. For English, the pass rate among Malay students was 85 per cent
in 2005 - an increase of 8 percentage points from the previous year (see
box). Pass rates for Mother Tongue and Mathematics were at 99.5 per cent
and 69.3 per cent respectively for the demographic.

A large proportion of students of all races are also making it to
post-secondary institutions, with 93.1 per cent in 2005, compared to 92.2
per cent the year before. The MOE report on how the various ethnic groups
performed, released yesterday, was meant to provide feedback to the
communities on how well their children fared in the national examinations.

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