MALAY PARENTS’ PERSPECTIVE ON ADMISSION OF THEIR CHILDREN TO CHINESE PRIMARY SCHOOL IN KELANTAN, MALAYSIA
Keywords:
Malay parents, Malay students, Admission to Chinese primary schools in MalaysiaAbstract
According to the statistical resources from the Education Ministry of Malaysia, the enrolment of non-Chinese in Chinese primary schools in Malaysia had been increasing gradually from year 1989 to 1999. The percentage of those non-Chinese students in Chinese primary schools has grown from 3.0% to 10.7% nationwide. In year 2000, the figure of non-Chinese students was estimated to be over 60,000 in which the Malays are believed to be the largest ethnic group in those Chinese schools. In this study, the researcher focused mainly on the Malay students who were sent by their parents to Chinese primary schools in Kelantan. The study was performed using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Firstly, the enrolment data of Malay students from year 2000 to 2009 in all Chinese primary schools in Kelantan were collected to find out the Malay students’ enrolment trend in Chinese schools. Later, a total of 300 Malay parents from fourteen Chinese primary schools in Kelantan were chosen as respondents to participate in the questionnaire study. This was to explore the factors that influenced them in sending their children to Chinese primary schools, and also the overall academic and social outcomes. The Malay parents’ social-demographic background (occupation type, monthly household income and education level) had also been analyzed to better understand which group formed the majority to send their children to Chinese schools. Besides, semi-structured interviews were carried out among the selected schools’ headmasters and 10 Malay parents who sent their children to Chinese schools, in order to obtain more in-depth opinions and answers. The findings indicated that there is a trend of Malay parents to send their children to Chinese primary schools. Hence, the figure in 2009 was 54.5%. Also, the results indicated that 54.3% of the respondents of this study earned less than RM1000 monthly as their household income. Thirdly, “the perspective of my child’s future” was found to be the most influential factor that for Malay parents in Kelantan to send their children to Chinese primary schools.
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