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The Orang Asli students still struggled to master the Bahasa Melayu subject. English language
which is the third language for the students, posed a huge challenge for them to acquire. Thus,
the subject became the weakest subject with a mere mastery rate of 33.3% for the English
Language comprehension component and 27.7% for the writing component,
However, the overall achievement in UPSR from 2012 to 2016 showed these group of students
performed far behind their peers, with a passing rate of 43.8% compared to the national passing
rate of 86.5%. The wide gap signified a low mastery rate among the Orang Asli students on the
three Rs - reading, writing and arithmetic. Low literacy and numeracy skills will hinder the
Orang Asli students’ progress and achievement at the secondary level and posed high risk.
3.2.5. Review of the existing evidence
A number of studies have been conducted to identify the factors that determine students’
achievement in Malaysia. Most of the research examined the influence of gender, socioeconomic
status, students’ attitude, teachers’ shortage that determines students’ performance. However,
research on the nature and extent of inequality in learning outcomes is limited.
One study found that students from rural area schools in Tenom Sabah had low achievement in
their academics (Polius 2009). The factors identified as responsible for low performance were
students’ attitudes, parents’ attitude, parents’ socioeconomic status, school facilities, and
shortage of teachers. Lack of facilities at schools also had direct effect on students’ academic
achievement. The findings showed that teacher shortage, especially in critical subjects such as
English, Science and Mathematics was one of the factors that influence the performance of
students. The findings show that students had low achievement if their school faced teacher
shortage. Similarly, Low and Ishak (2012) found that family socioeconomic status and academic
self-concept affected academic performance of male and female students. Another study on the
role of teacher-student relationship showed a positive relationship among teachers and
students’ performance in English (Yunusa, Osmana and Ishaka 2011). Therefore, teacher-
student relationship was able to increase students’ motivation level in learning.
Othman and Muijs (2013) tested educational quality in urban and rural primary schools in
Malaysia with a focus on 4 factors: educational resources, school leadership, school climate and
involvement of parent in schools. Generally, the finding of their studies showed that educational
quality among these two areas had no differences. Othman and Muijs noticed that primary
school regardless urban or rural schools revealed no gap among the 4 factors that tested in the
study. This means that there was no significant relationship between school locations with
educational quality. However, finding showed that for school climate, teachers from rural
schools distinguished lower levels. Teachers mentioned besides educational resources, school
leadership, school climate and involvement of parent in schools, other factors may influence the
school quality. The main factors in teachers’ perception were teaching and learning method and
teachers’ workload.
Ismail and Awang (2007) analysed the gap in mathematics achievement among eighth-grade
students in Malaysia using the Trend International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS)
1999. A number of school, home, demographic and socio-economic variables were analysed to
study the gap in the mean student mathematics scores. Gender, the language spoken at home,
family background, and home educational resources were found to have significant impact on
the students’ level of mathematics achievement.