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3.2.9. Recommendations
The following recommendations are made based on the review of the existing reformmeasures,
stakeholder perceptions and evidence obtained from the primary analysis of PISA data on
Malaysian students.
First, the influence of household wealth on learning outcomes should be reduced. The findings
indicate that there is significant inequality in learning outcomes between children from poor
and non-poor families. Compared to children from the lowest wealth group, those from the top
wealth quartile enjoy a learning advantage of between 31 and 41 PISA points which is
approximately equivalent to one year of schooling. This gap is not driven by differences in other
student, family and school specific factors. Additionally, in poor households, parents are less
educated and unable to assist children in terms of learning activities at home. Schools should
provide a conducive learning environment through extra homework support (and substitute for
private tutoring) as well as remedial classes at school so that these economically poor students
can acquire quality education in school. However stakeholders perceived funding as being
inadequate for government schools; public-private partnership (through corporate sector
funding projects) for schools catering to disadvantaged children can help in addressing the
wealth gap in learning outcomes.
Second, access to to quality preschool education at the early age should be equalized. The
findings based on regression analysis clearly indicate that attending the pre-primary education
is an important factor for students performance in secondary school. The learning gain is in
around 10 PISA points. Pre-school attendance has a bigger impact among children from
economically well-off families. The Malaysian government should establish more preschools to
cater to the lower socio-economic students or provide themwith vouchers to attend private pre-
schools. Alternatively, grants can be given to private providers so that more affordable
preschools can be set up. Among other things, more teachers need to be trained in early
childhood education.
Third, measures should be undertaken to tackle the widening gender gap in learning oucomes.
Compared to the majority of OIC countries, girls in Malaysia outperform boys in reading and
science. Inmathematics, they performat the same level as boys. Our analysis of the determinants
of learning outcomes show that the reverse gender gap is particularly worrisome in case of
children from economically worse-off families. Therefore policy measures should be introduced
targetting boys. While further studies are needed to understand the factors that lead to such
under performance of Malaysian boys, schemes such as gender targeted scholarships and
motivational talksfor boys from poorer families can be considered on a pilot basis. Other
potential measures include elevating the status of alternatives to general education such as
Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) as a viable and respected pathway for
post-secondary education and not a last resort.
Fourth, more needs to be done to improve school leadership and teacher motivation. The
majority of the stakeholders interviewed identified “being motivated” as the second most
important feature of an effective teacher. The majority also identified the lack of motivated
teachers and effective leadership as two of the three most important barriers to the provision of
quality education in Malaysian schools. Therefore, leadership training for senior management
team and school teachers needs to be increased. Currently, Institute Aminuddin Baki is the only
provider of the leadership training. Better training opportunity needs to be given to a diverse
range of providers so that there is competition to ensure effective training. At the same time,