The actualization of the national philosophy of education in secondary schools in Kuching, Sarawak : student and teacher perspectives

Abstract

The overall purpose of the study is to analyse the actualization of the National Philosophy of Education (NPE) in government and private secondary schools on the basis of student and teacher perspectives. The study believes that high tendency of failure in achieving the main objective of the NPE could occur if the relevant parties are unable to understand and personalize them. Since its establishment in 1988, there was no research conducted to study the actualization of the NPE, the present study addressed this issue, specifically from the perspective of the secondary school students and their teachers both in the government and private sectors. Survey design was adopted to obtain the research objectives. Two sets of questionnaires for students and teachers were designed and modified based on a handbook, “National Philosophy of Education, Goal and Mission” (Falsafah Pendidikan Kebangsaan, Matlamat dan Misi), published by Ministry of Education in 2001. The Cronbach’s Alpha reliability coefficient value for the teacher and student instrument was 0.96 and 0.98 respectively. A total of 185 Form 4 students and 45 teachers from both private and government secondary schools in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia were selected as participants in this research by using ‘stratified sampling method’. The mean scores for the actualization of the NPE in secondary schools based on student and teacher perspectives were 7.67 and 7.28 out of 10 respectively. 77.3% of students and 64.4% of teachers rated the level of actualization of the NPE as high. There were no significant differences between student and teacher perspectives but there were significant differences between respondents from government and private secondary schools. As per the results, the element most actualized was ‘high moral standards,’ and the least actualized was ‘‘putting on-going effort in education’. Overall, the results showed that the NPE is yet to be fully actualized in secondary school students and their lives.