Academic Performance of Malay Students

Sir, Malay students are doing better at the national examinations and going further in their educational pursuits. Today, close to 88% of the Primary 1 cohort of Malay students are admitted to post-secondary education. This is a significant improvement from the 75% 10 years ago. Although this is lower than the national statistic, the gap has narrowed steadily. This is the result of concerted efforts of the self-help groups (SHGs), other community organisations and parents, working in partnership with schools and MOE.

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The factors affecting the performance of our students are complex and multi-dimensional. Indeed, proficiency in English is important to access learning in other subjects. Socio-economic background is also associated with performance, and this is also true in other countries. Home support and individual motivation also play a part.

MOE has put in place various programmes to help level up students who require additional help. Our Learning Support Programmes provide specialised support for weaker students at the lower primary levels to close the literacy and numeracy gap as early as possible.

Besides providing support in the academic areas, MOE is also working on improving the quality, accessibility and affordability of school-based Student Care Centres (SCCs), so as to provide additional supervision and guidance for students who may require stronger learning support after school. We have also recently strengthened support for students from low-income backgrounds by enhancing MOE's Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS) and our bursaries for students of Institutes of Higher Learning.

Beyond programmes in school, it is important that parents and the community are also involved in reinforcing the learning support provided for weaker students.

In this aspect, the SHGs have been valuable partners to MOE, with SHGs putting in place initiatives that complement school programmes. MENDAKI, for example, provides educational support via programmes, such as the MENDAKI Tuition Scheme. The programme fees are kept affordable to ensure that they are accessible to all students who require the additional support. Another example is the Association for Muslim Professionals' (AMP) Youth Enrichment Programme, which provides tuition in English and Mathematics, and encourages students to participate in enrichment activities aimed at developing their character.

Parents too have an important role to play. For instance, parents and families can support students by motivating them to enjoy learning, and ensuring that they adopt good habits, like reading widely. Parents can also look to MOE's new Parents in Education website for resources to help them support the education and development of their children.

MOE will continue to review how we can help under-achieving students, in partnership with the self-help groups and parents, to enable all our students to maximise their potential.

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I would like to thank the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for his clarification and answer. My initial intent of asking this question was really about whether cultural differences play a part in terms of how Malay students have performed over the years. That is why I have asked MOE because, over the years, MOE has also undertaken a lot of efforts in terms of helping weaker students. But has MOE studied whether there is a correlation? For example, if we look at students coming from poorer backgrounds, especially the Malay community, through proficiency in English language specifically, and whether it plans to tweak the way it handles weaker students as part of its learning support programme to accelerate how this community can potentially achieve better and be up to national standards.

Sir, I have said earlier that there are so many factors that affect students' performance in school. Language proficiency is one, whether it is English language as the main medium of instruction or Mother Tongue languages. Socio-economic background, home support and individual motivation – these are all known factors that affect performance of students in general. We find that these are common factors that are also true in other countries. So, I would say that rather than focusing specifically on students from particular ethnic communities, we identify the issues and then help the students holistically. And we do this from a very young age – from lower primary level, that is, Primary 1 and Primary 2. The Learning Support Programme helps the students with weaker foundation in Mathematics and English to strengthen their foundation in the subjects, in literacy skills, so that they will enjoy learning English Language and other subjects later on.

So, I would say, in short, that the factors affecting performance of students are generally true for all societies and quite common in most countries.

Sir, I hope the MOE is not looking at this and saying, "Let us just take a very race-blind approach to this", because I think, for years, we have known this is a problem. We looked at the statistics, it has been an issue. What I hope is that MOE could review and look at it, and if the data is showing something, we could address it, maybe differently or in a more creative manner. I know the self-help groups and I know that they do have challenges as well, in terms of resources there is not rich, compared to what MOE has in the schools.

Sir, we recognise that some students do face different kinds of problems in education. That is why we work with different self-help groups for various programmes. We want to do this so that our students and their parents benefit. As I said earlier, we are also trying to increase the number of Student Care Centres in Primary schools so that there is further supervision of outside school hours for students who may need assistance, students who may come from certain kind of families who may require additional supervision and assistance in doing their work. Yes, different self-help groups are doing different programmes with schools and we would like to continue with this approach so that students from different ethnic groups, either working together or separately, will benefit from the various programmes run by schools and voluntary organisations.

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A supplementary question, Sir. Maybe the Ministry of Education could also enlighten us on the progress that has been made by the Malay community students. Secondly, how is the response to the extra enrichment programmes in the LSP, if there is any, towards helping the students who are under achieving? How is the response and the result of this help so far?

Sir, I think, generally, our students on LSP have been responding quite well and a sizeable number have progressed and do not need further assistance through the LSP programme per se. However, schools which have been very concerned about the performance of their students and the ability to enjoy learning would want to help their students through other school-based programmes which may be related to or as a progression of the LSP in school for specific groups of pupils. I do not have the specific figures on LSP progress in schools, but I would generally say that, yes, our students are responding well to LSP and many do not need specifically LSP programme beyond Primary 2. However, we are always open to ways in improving our programme for our students.

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