Understanding parental choice for private and national schools in Malaysia and its implication for national unity

Abstract

In the modern system of education, parents have been given the right to choose the type of school for their children. Several studies indicated that parental choice has become a more prominent factor of many types of segregations including ethnic and religious segregation. In the Malaysian context, ethnic segregation is more prevalent due to the multicultural nature of the country. Moreover, in addition to the existing debate of public vs private choice, Malaysian education system features Islamic schools which provide education for Muslim students and ethnic-based schools that officially accommodate the use of Mandarin and Tamil as medium of instruction and provide ethnically homogenous learning environment. Thus, the system gives little chance for Malaysians to interracially interact, and at the end creates a hindrance to national unity. This study was an attempt to understand parental choice of Private and National schools and its implication for national unity. The qualitative case study method was employed in this research. The data was collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews of 13 informants from different backgrounds of ethnicity such as Malay, Chinese and Indian who send their children to National School, National Type Chinese School, National Type Indian School and Private School. The study came up with 6 themes namely: Parents’ rationality factors, ethnic and cultural factors, elements of national unity, integration of multicultural differences, education reform for national unity and socio implication of parental choice. It was found that beside rationality factors which influenced parental choice, cultural and religious factors play significant role in motivating parents to choose school for their children. The study uncovered parents’ perception on fostering national unity through education which reflects both pluralist and assimilationist approach in multicultural education. Majority of the informants suggested that national education system should be revised in order to cater to the mission of multicultural integration through education. Finally, the study discovered that beside the implication on national unity, parental choice can potentially lead to socio-economic polarization of society.