The actualization of the Malaysian national education philosophy in secondary schools: student and teacher perspectives

Abstract

In the Malaysian context, all educational processes at the national level are envisioned by the National Education Philosophy (NEP). The NEP was formed in 1988 in line with the National Principles (Rukun Negara) with the ultimate aims of building a united and progressive society (Ministry of Education, 2001). However, there is uncertainty whether the NEP has been actualized in the educational processes, transmitted successfully by teachers to students and further personalized by students. This paper aims to report findings of study which analyzed the actualization of the NEP in government and private secondary schools based on student and teacher perspectives. The research followed a survey design through two sets of questionnaires; one for teachers and the other for students. The Cronbach's Alpha reliability coefficient value for the teacher and student questionnaire 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 participated in this research. 77.3% of students and 64.4% of teachers rated the level of actualization of the NEP as high, with a mean score of 7.67 and 7.28 out of 10 as rated by the students and teachers respectively. The paper further discusses the finding of the study from both teacher and student perspectives. It also provides a brief discussion on the limitations of this study and on its implications. It concludes with general implications of the study to the educational processes in the country in general and to the national education system in specific.