Education
From The Report: Malaysia 2012
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Education is a renewed area of focus for the Malaysian government, which has increased its spending on the sector by 60% over the past two years as part of its commitment to building a high-income economy. The current system enjoys relatively high grades in global reports but suffers from low enrolment across primary, secondary, and tertiary levels. Private schools have emerged to fill this gap, especially in the kindergarten and primary market. The government also abolished school fees for primary and secondary school in 2012. One major challenge, however, will be maintaining the quality of Malaysian graduates even as the government increases quality to address labour shortfalls.
This section features an interview with Lim Kok Wing, Founder and President of Limkokwing University of Creative Technology, and David Willetts, UK Minister of Universities and Science.
Malaysia’s relatively low dependence on the public sector – just 4.1% of budgetary expenditures go toward health care – is fairly unique in ASEAN, but it has produced a system that most agree is fundamentally sound. Around 40% of Malaysians have medical insurance, with the rest using Ministry of Health centres, while the private sector’s share of medical spending has trebled in the past decade. This has led to retention problems in the public sector, as many doctors head for private practice or go overseas.

Articles from this Chapter

Overview

A place for learning: Efforts are under way to better integrate schooling facilities
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Continuing on its decade-long trend of GDP growth (6.8% per year on average from 2000 to 2009), the education sector of Malaysia has been the subject of a renewed focus for the government, as well as from private investors both in Malaysia and abroad. The government has identified the sector within its Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) as the Education National Key Economic Area (NKEA), focusing on four prioritised segments based on existing market share and potential for future growth:…

Analysis

Making the grade: Providing students with the resources to excel
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Financing education in Malaysia, be it through bursaries, grants or student loans, is a booming business. A variety of players – the federal government and a wide range of public and private institutions, universities, funds, charities, banks and large businesses – share this market, the expansion of which mirrors that of tertiary education. Tuition fees are comparatively affordable, but are offset by relatively high living costs. According to a Buffalo University study, being a student…

Analysis

Private sector takes over: Following the government’s kick-start, education as enterprise is increasingly becoming the norm
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Over the past 15 years, the private sector has been widely credited as increasing access and choice for education options in Malaysia. However, the picture is more complicated. Everything from government incentives to changes in the public sector, the opening of new niches, and the introduction of private players in the primary, secondary and tertiary level institutions, have all come into play in reforming Malaysian education. PRIMARIES & SECONDARIES IN FULL BLOOM: Private primary and…

Interview

OBG talks to Lim Kok Wing, Founder and President, Limkokwing University of Creative Technology
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Interview: Lim Kok Wing Is Malaysia’s education system competitive in comparison to other countries in the ASEAN region? LIM KOK WING: We can look at ability of Malaysian higher education institutes to attract foreign students as a barometer of how effectively we are competing, and this figure is increasing by nearly 10% per year. Malaysia needs to ensure it is setting the bar for competition beyond ASEAN and must focus on building its value proposition within the global education marketplace,…

Interview

OBG talks to David Willetts, UK Minister for Universities and Science
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Interview: David Willetts What role can universities play in achieving greater regionalisation amongst ASEAN countries? DAVID WILLETTS: Universities in the UK and major education centres around the world continue to see increasing demand from foreign students, both regionally and internationally. A strength of prominent universities in the ASEAN region is that they are seeing considerable numbers of applicants not only from ASEAN, but from other regions as well. Clearly, part of Malaysia’s broader…

Overview

In transition: The system prepares for change as part of the move towards universal coverage
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Under Malaysia’s 2012 budget, the health services sector was allocated RM15bn ($4.8bn) for operating expenditure and RM1.8bn ($580.6m) for development expenditure. The total budget for 2011 was RM15.2bn ($4.9bn) and for 2010, it was RM14.8bn ($4.7bn). Malaysia spends 4.1% of its total annual expenditure on the public health care sector, making it the third-lowest spender among ASEAN countries, above Myanmar and Laos. Thailand tops the list with 14% and Singapore spends 7.8% of its total expenditure…

Analysis

Healthy contracts: The private sector’s share of services and facilities is growing
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Private hospitals are big business in Malaysia. There are around 220 individual facilities across the country, nine of which have been granted Joint Commission International (JCI) accreditation, a recognised world standard. Domestically, private health care service providers are frequented by 40% of the population that subscribes to health insurance policies. CONCENTRATED CLUSTERS: Geographically, private hospitals are concentrated in urban areas, but also far more present in Peninsular Malaysia…