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GIFTED EDUCATION IN MALAYSIA

Dr Zainab bt Hussin

Deputy Director, Institut Aminuddin Baki, Ministry of Education, Malaysia.

A nation’s greatest asset is its intellectual resource cultivated through the process of

education. Of every 100 children, at least five can be classified as outstandingly high in

intelectual, creative or social ability. Each child is born with a certain potential.

Giftedness knows not creed, colour or class. The gifted learn quickly. As infants, gifted

children pass the early milestones rapidly, talking early and learning to read before

starting school. They thirst for knowledge of unusual subjects, and ask questions with

insatiable curiosity. These children are tomorrow’s leaders, scientists, artists, musicians

and managing directors; their potential represents a national asset we cannot waste.

We should take action to ensure national asset are identified and developed

accordingly. Proper nurture will allow the child to blossom and grow into their inherent

potential. The history of defining the concept of “giftedness” is one characterized by

shifting paradigms of what constitues intelligence and creativity in the context of a

particular society’s ideology, political economic, cultural structure and history.

History has shown that the education system in Malaysia is less emphasizes on

“differential learning” that would utilized by gifted students. All these gifted students

required a different approach to increase the level of their learning in line with their

abilities that can be learned at a higher cognitive level. Before this there is no single act

that emphasizes the learning process of students gifted. Observations show that the

development of gifted education students received very little attention, even then, in

1962, gifted students have been given the opportunity to learn a higher level of through

Express Class System. Students are identified before given the opportunity to shorten

the period of learning in primary schools from six to five years. From this period until the

early 1980s, the Ministry of Education does not provide a specific program to meet the

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learning keperluana gifted students to Malaysia one of Mensa international association

founded in Britain was established in 1983 with a membership of 140 students which

aims to identify "human intelligence for the benefit of humanity, to encourage research

into the nature, characteristics and Uses of intelligence and to provide a stimulating

environment for social intelectual and its members.

Due to the need to provide a form of education for gifted students exist, then in 1985,

Ms Prof Wan Azman, Faculty of Education Universiti Malaya has introduced a gifted

program called BAKA through his several researches which developed a special test to

identify these gifted students. This was followed by the establishment of the Association

of Children Talent Malaysia in 1987. This association became the stage of discussion

and sharing among individuals, including teachers, academicians and parents who are

interested in or involved with gifted students education.

This development followed by the First National Symposium on Gifted Education in

1990, organized by the Centre for Child Development, University of Malaya in Kuala

Lumpur and a resolution was formed and finally in 1996, the Ministry of Education

Malaysia has introduced Level Assessment Test One (PTS) for the three-degree

students to identify these students. Selection is based on academic achievement, and

Cerda students given the opportunity to continue to degree five. PTS implemented until

2001 and then abolished because some problems.

Unfortunately, 4.5% of high school drop outs are gifted and they leave school in part

because of school-related issues such as poor channel in meeting their educational

requirements. The gifted are at risk due to difficulties in social acceptance,

demotivation, low self esteem and difficulty with peer relations proportional to their IQ.

Further there exists anacdotal evidence of truency problems with gifted children, who

sometimes miss school because of disengagement and worse, fear of bullying. Due to

that, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said educational programmes, which

emphasized “differentiated learning” that match the gifted students’ thinking, learning

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and reading capabilities should be taken in consideration in future. The principle aim of

the Gifted and Talented initiative is to improve provision and raise attainment of the

gifted and talented by establishing ‘a distinct teaching and learning programme’ that

includes both improvements in mainstream classroom teaching and out-of-hours

enrichment activities for the targeted cohorts. Schools are expected to achieve, lead

and manage activities that address the school’s specific needs. These might help in

reducing the rates of drop outs among gifted students in Malaysia.

Due to that, Malaysia is committed in developing learning institution where both equity

and excellence are persistent goals for each learner. Since changes in every young

adolescent are rapid and uneven, special learning opportunities should be designed to

accommodate the different learning curve of the diverse learners. To accommodate the

Malaysian gifted students’ learning needs, the Malaysian government has developed a

special programme known as PERMATA Programme. This programme was launched

on the 3rd April 2009. The PERMATA Programme is initiated in March 2007, is to

develop Malaysia human capital, building up a network that now comprises some 600

PERMATA Negara centres for early childhood education. In 2009, the PERMATA

Programme was expanded to include three strands for the gifted and talented students

that includes 1) PERMATApintar Education Programme for academically gifted children,

2) PERMATA Seni for those with talent in the performing arts and 3) PERMATA Insan

for intellectually gifted students in empowering the worldly as well as religious

knowledge to produce future scholars and philosophers based on the Al Quran and As

Sunnah.

PERMATApintar Education Program was launched in January 2010. The school’s

mission and vision are; to promote holistic education for the gifted and talented with

equal emphasis on physical, emotional, spiritual, intellectual and social development.

The high school offers three academic tracks. Namely: Accelerated Track which

focuses on the National Curriculum, Scholastic Aptitude Test and Scholastic

Assessment Test (SAT) and Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL); National

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Track which focuses on National Curriculum and O- Level Track which focuses on

British Education. Students must also enrol in two Mathematics courses and two foreign

languages. Currently, there are 238 gifted and talented Malaysian students studying at

this school. This PERMATApintar program focuses on academic and the learning

environment is created holistically and based on the National Education Philosophy

(NEP). NEP emphasizes the development of physical, emotional, spiritual, intellectual

and social balance. This program will focus on student development philosophy and

principles of living a balanced peace in the five aspect mentioned. It is a two years

programme that emphasizes on ‘differentiated learning approach’ in which all students

learn according to their learning level. The PERMATApintar focus on student-centred

learning and using various method of learning such as cooperative learning and

collaborative methods based, research projects with research experts, mobility

programmes and student exchange and problem-based learning (PBL). These gifted

students are exposed to the concept of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) to help

them in creative thinking, critical and innovative in their learning.

According to the Prime Minister of Malaysia Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said the school

was part of the five-point Permata initiative, which includes Permata Negara programme

for children aged 5 and below, Permata Remaja for at-risk teenagers, Permata Seni for

the performing arts and Permata Insan for religious students.

"The Permata programmes will complement the existing education system to

ensure that no child is left behind in the country's preparation for the future."

Prime Minister, News Straits Times 28 March 2012

On the other hand, PERMATA Seni is to cater gifted students who are excellence in

performing arts. This is one of the special programme designed to give exposure to the

members of PERMATA Seni to the national class performance. This programme

nurture youth and children to participate in positive and beneficial activities. The aim of

this programme is to develop the potential of children in vocal and music instrument

through a systematic learning focusing on their talent. The PERMATA Seni provide a

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platform for gifted Malaysian children to highlight their outstanding talent in the vocal art

and thus set up a world class choir. The aim is for PERMATA Seni choir to be at par

with internationally renowned choir.

PERMATA Insan is defined as an Abqari individual that is highly skilled in

understanding, interpreting, memorizing and applying the Al Quran and As-Sunnah in

his/her life. The PERMATA Insan is one of the plans under the PERMATA Negara

Programme by Department of Prime Minister of Malaysia. Its initiative for this

programme is to guide these intellectually gifted students in empowering the worldly as

well as religious knowledge to produce future learned scholars and philosophers based

on the Al-Quran and As-Sunnah. This programme involves children at the age of eight.

The main objective of this establishment of PERMATA Insan is to identify these gifted

students from the earlier age so that their potentials and abilities can be developed and

further strengthened holistically to the optimal level.

Activities that had been started since November 2009 by Pusat Permata Insan USIM

was the Intellectual Series of Discussion. This programme invited specialists and

scholars from various fields to contribute their ideas to further improve the Program

Permata Insan USIM. Apart from that, the committee members of the Program Permata

Insan also had arranged visits to strategic locations locally and internationally, in its

great effort to gather information and establish networks of partnership to strengthen the

implementation of the Program Permata Insan USIM. Networking collaborations that

had been planned are University King Abdul Aziz, Jeddah and University Taibah,

Madinah, Arab Saudi.

“the education system in Malaysia previously did not cater to gifted children or

“those at the extreme end of the bell-curve”, thus leaving many parents with no

choice but to send them overseas. “As a result, we suffered a brain drain, and

losing many outstanding talents that could have contributed to the country.”

Prime Minister, News Straits Times 28 March 2012

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Due to that, education for the exceptionally bright students is being planned into the

Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013 – 2025. This is in line with the “No child is left

behind” dictum as championed by the Prime Minister’s wife who is the patron for this

PERMATA program.

Hence, in 2012 the ministry have launch the education transformation programme

called the Malaysia Education Blueprint that exhibit a roadmap in developing a national

strategy for gifted students that was strategized in three waves. The first wave

focussed on building a better understanding of the needs of gifted children in Malaysia,

and designing programmes that address their needs. Over the next three years, the

Ministry will benchmark local programmes against other systems with top-performing

programmes for gifted students to identify areas for improvement and replicate

successful practices. Additionally, the Ministry will establish working partnerships with

private sectors and leading research institutions to start developing its own set of gifted

and talented programmes. In the plan, the second wave MOE will pilot new

programmes. The Ministry explore and pilot three programmes for high achievers

(typically estimated in research to form 15% of the student population), and one for

gifted students (1% of the student population): The third wave shows that MOE is

refining the design of the three pilot programmes and gradually scale up the pilot

programmes nationwide namely 1) the accelerated curriculum programme that will

allow high achievers to complete secondary school and take the SPM in four rather than

five years, and to undergo more enrichment activities such as independent research

projects. Students will be selected for entry after UPSR, and will be regularly tested

each year to ensure the programme is beneficial and has no developmental drawbacks;

2) Laluan Pintas will allow students to complete Years 1 and 2 in a single year.

Students are tested at the beginning of Year 1 for employing a standards-based test

developed by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, with typically 10 - 15% of test-takers

meeting the required standard for admission each year. Upon successful completion of

the programme, students will be promoted to Year 3 in the following academic year; and

lastly 3) The gifted and talented programme for the 1% of the student population that

is gifted in a specific area (e.g., Mathematics, Linguistics, Music, Visual Arts). Students

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will have a tailored, flexible education programme that enables them to receive

instruction from experts in their field while still participating in mainstream schooling.

It is believed that the educational program given should be able to tap the students

potential to the fullest. Schools should be given the freedom to improve on the

curriculum and any aspects related to teaching and learning that involve the gifted and

talented students. The Teacher Education Institute should introduce courses related to

educating the gifted and talented. The future of gifted education lies in the conception of

intelligence as a cultural-bound, multi-faceted, multi-dimensional, and egalitarian

construct. It also lies in the fact that a successful program need not be one borrowed

from a faraway land in which costs and context become a criticism of an otherwise

potentially successful endeavour.

In conclusion, the draw backs of gifted education in Malaysia before this had become

the data for future programmes to be implemented in relation to gifted education. And it

is believed that with the support of all stakeholders in creating breakthrough in

transforming the gifted education in Malaysia, will assure its success.

References

Education for All: An Achievable Vision. Paris: UNESCO. http://www.unesco.org/education/efa/global_co/policy_group/EFA_brochure.pdf

Hussein Ahmad. (2012). Mission of public education in Malaysia: The challenge of transformation. Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya Press.

McKinsey & Company (2007). “How the World’s Best-Performing School Systems Come Out on Top”

NKRA. (2012) http://www.pemandu.gov.my/gtp/Improving_Students_Outcomes-@-Improving_Students_Outcomes_Overview.aspx

Partee, G.L.(April 2010). Education transformation: Doing what works in education reform. Center for American Progress. (http://www.americanprogress.org/projects/doing_what_works)

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Robinson, K. (2009). The element: How finding your passion changes everything. New York: Viking Penguin.

Robinson, K. (2011). Out of our minds: Learning to be creative. West Sussex: Capstone

Teacher’s Mind Resources. (2003). Reforming or transforming education: More than just words. (http://www.teachersmind.com)