Orang Asli students' readiness to be part of the sustainable education community

Abstract

The government of Malaysia has taken the responsibility to ensure that Orang Asli are not left behind in education. With the cultural shift in education and learning, the concept of ‘sustainable education’ requires educational policy to be revised and practices that are sustainable. This study is to investigate the Orang Asli of Royal Belum students’ readiness to be part of the sustainable education community. Data was collected from a school at Royal Belum, Perak, through interviews, observations and questionnaire. The quatitative results show high self-belief, goals and awareness of the importance of education, more so for the Jahai tribe compared to Temiar. However, these are contradicting with teachers’ and researchers’ observations. Thus, intervention to translate their beliefs to actual performance is important for them and to the society to fulfill the nation’s agenda and to be part of the global community of sustainable education.