The standpoint of multi-ethnic society towards establishment of single-stream schools

• Main Authors: Ku Samsu, Ku Hasnita, Ab Halim, Adlina, Lee, Yok Fee, Sulaiman, Mohd Hafiz
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: L Education (General)
• Online Access: http://repo.uum.edu.my/6830/1/Ku.pdf; http://repo.uum.edu.my/6830/
• Institution: Universiti Utara Malaysia

The core strength of a nation that comprises a multi-ethnic society is unity. In relation to this, many methods to bolster the harmonious ties among the people have been carried out periodically by the government, such as the 1Malaysia Concept, Student Integration Plan for Unity in schools and many others. Besides that, there has also been an idea forwarded by academicians and politicians with regards to fostering unity by means of formation of single-stream schools, namely schools that use Bahasa Melayu as the medium of learning.This means that there will no longer be any vernacular schools.This idea was mooted upon the realization by these groups of the potential and role of the national language in unifying its citizens. However, this plan includes the teaching of the main language of other ethnic groups, such as Mandarin and Tamil, in national schools.As this idea touches on the core identity element of the multi-racial community in Malaysia, it has evoked various reactions amongst them; thus this study was conducted to identify the different standpoints with regards to the formation of single-stream schools, based on ethnic group.This study was done quantitatively on a multi-ethnic community consisting of teachers and parents of students from a number of schools in the districts of Gombak and Petaling in the state of Selangor.The sample group involved 361 teachers and 384 parents.Data analysis was performed inferentially and descriptively using ANOVA method, cross tabulations, frequency and percentage.The significant value that was determined for the ANOVA test was P < 0.05. In general, study findings depict significant differences among the different ethnic respondent groups as regards to the establishment of single-stream schools.