Malaysia is a multi-ethnic and multi-racial country, with a multi-religious and multi-cultural people as a result. Despite its diversified nature, Malaysia is a country that constitutionally acknowledges Islam as the official religion, and all affairs pertaining to Islam are at the highest priority. The key concerns that may be raised are: What…

A national qualifications framework (NQF) is an instrument used to classify a country's qualifications at different levels. Each level is defined by a set of learning outcomes expected at that level. NQFs can be useful tools in education and training reforms and are vital reference points for lifelong learning and comparing qualifications across…

This article reviews the existing literature concerning the policy of English for Young Learners (EYL) and its implementation in ASEAN state members. The source of the review comprises peer-reviewed journal articles, conference proceedings, book chapters, research reports, official government documents, official websites, and newspaper articles…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the quality of teachers based on education and training provided under new reform policies in Malaysia affects their earnings outcomes. The study conducted a benefit and returns analysis guided by human capital theory. Design/methodology/approach: The study used survey research methods to…

Malaysia has made significant progress in advancing access to education over the last two decades, having achieved the education goals of the UN's Millennium Development Goals. Unfortunately, this has not been accompanied by quality improvement, with reports of "unemployable" graduates a frequent refrain. This paper reports on a study of…

This paper examines the preparation of school principals in Malaysia, and the aspiration of the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013-2025 to ensure high-performing school leaders in every school. It reports on the principal preparatory programme, the National Professional Qualification for Educational Leaders, which is mandatory to those who aspire…

As part of Malaysia's aspirations to achieve developed nation status by 2020, and become a key player in the global economy, the government has sought to improve the English language proficiency of its citizens while maintaining the status and significance of the Malay Language as the national language. Recent strategies have involved…

This publication is the outcome of the international conference organized by UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL), in collaboration with the Centre for Validation of Prior Learning at Inholland University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands, and in partnership with the French National Commission for UNESCO that was held in Hamburg in…

This article provides some of the key findings of a comparative study commissioned by the International Labour Organization (ILO), which attempted to understand more about the impact and implementation of national qualifications frameworks (NQFs). Sixteen case studies were produced, on qualifications frameworks in Australia; Bangladesh; Botswana;…

This article discusses the Malaysian Qualifications Framework (MQF). An observation about the MQF is that in the particular context of developments in Malaysian education and training and its economic and social context, all roads have led to standards and quality assurance. This is the view expressed by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA)…

This article presents an overview of the education system in Malaysia and highlights some issues pertaining to higher education. In addition, this article also looks at some issues specific to the teaching and learning of mathematics both at school and in the universities. Some data on students' achievements in mathematics examination at public…

This document comprises volume I of the national reports on the elementary/primary school curriculum in Asia and the Pacific sponsored by the National Institute for Educational Research (NIER) in Tokyo, Japan. Each nation's report is organized under the following topics: (1) general information on the geography and population, educational system,…

This document contains 123 papers from an international conference on vocational education and training (VET) for lifelong learning in the information era. The papers focus on the following themes: (1) societal and ethical issues; (2) human resource development and personnel training; (3) international issues; (4) information technology in VET;…