Survival Outside The System: A Study Of Malaysian Chinese Independent Secondary Schools

The implementation of the Education Act 1961 in Malaysia has led to the switching of many Chinese Secondary Schools into English Secondary Schools.Those refused to switch,have become Malaysian Independent Chinese Secondary Schools(MICSS).They are not recognized by the government,self-reliance,and therefore,remain beyond the Malaysian National Education system.Each school runs by the board of directors,by whom the school principal is employed and accountable to.MICSS appears to be a very unique educational system in Malaysia,as well as in the world.This study tries to reveal the uniqueness of MICSS and how they flourish beyond the establishment of the national education system.This study adopts literature research method and personal interviews,namely the comparative analysis of the statistical data of the three survey reports(1983,1992 and 2016)of MICSS,which spanned more than 30 years,as well as the interview analysis of the 14 senior MICSS principals in West Malaysia,through the perspective of Sociology of Education.This study also intends to focus on a particular school,in order to set as an example to other MICSS,to specifically develop a unique development action plan for that school.This study has completed the research and revelation of how MICSS flourish beyond the establishment of the national education system in Malaysia from more than 50 years,and the study findings can be summarized as below:1.This study found out that,since 1961 until 1973,the MICSS has been struggling for survival for more than ten years.A large numbers of the schools are on the verge of dying.In order to survive,some of the schools are gradually departed from the founding basis and the original ideal of the Chinese education.The fate of the MICSS have been transformed by the "Revival Movement for MICSS”since 1973.The Revival Movement for MICSS put forward the big idea of'Follow Our Own Way',to encourage all the MICSS to focus on the uniqueness of Chinese education and to inspire the awareness of the Chinese community to support the development of the Chinese education a.k.a.MICSS.By the end of the year 1973,the Dong Jiao Zong has passed an important resolution for the development of the MICSS,"The Action Plan for the Development of MICSS"."The Action Plan",among others,highlighted four missions and six pillars of the development of the MICSS,which successfully revived the MICSS from the brink of death.So said,the very beginning mind itself is the most accomplished mind of true enlightenment.2.It is a long battle on educational principle and the expediency that disputes over school policy,curriculum setting and the medium of teaching.Running schools beyond the establishment of the national education system has created the free and diversified curriculum of MICSS,but it still cannot get rid of the shackles of the government curriculum.In terms of curriculum provision,the survey shows that the two-pronged curriculum system has overloaded the schoolwork,physical and mental workload of students in MICSS.This study suggests that MICSS should follow the curriculum leadership strategy emphasized in the "Malaysia Independent Chinese Secondary Schools Education Blueprint",reform the existing curriculum structure,optimize curriculum standards and promote school-based curriculum to develop in the right direction of education.This study suggests that Dong Zong should learn from the intervention method of sociology,and actively identifies volunteer schools to become the pilot schools of educational reform,as the breakthrough of educational reform practice.3.Based on the analysis of the survey report,this study found that the decision-making power of the management of MICSS was not well balanced.The decision-making power of the board of directors is widely involved,while the students and teachers,as the main body of the school,hardly participate in the decision-making power.This study suggests that the administrative power of the management of MICSS should be decentralize,and be institutionalize,in order to reduce the instability and uncertainty of the personal relationships.This study found that there are three types of strategies that MICSS principals adopt in managing their relationship with the school board:alliance,cooperation,and self-reliance.The decision-making relationship between the directors and the principals is a power game.4.This study found that most of the MICSS students come from urban areas and their families come from higher annual income group.The MICSS has gradually become the so-called "educational institution is the intermediary of social reproduction" in the reproduction theory.This study calls on MICSS educators to reflect and to focus on the social responsibility and the educational equity,and reminding MICSS educators to pay more attention and assistance to the students who are from the disadvantaged family background,and to make relevant adjustments to the curriculum contents and teaching methods to cater the needs of the disadvantaged students.5.As for teachers,the statistical results show that the educational qualifications of teachers in MICSS is improving,but a long-term and more systematic teachers training plan is much needed,and at the same time,the school-based teachers training program should be encouraged.In addition,the statistical results also show that MICSS teachers are overloaded with work.Therefore,this study proposes to liberate teachers' time and truly empower teachers to become the backbone of independent middle school education reform project in the next decade.In view of the uniqueness of each MICSS in terms of its excellence and undying resilience,this study proposes that every MICSS should customize its own education blueprint,which is the way to survive in the future.Finally this study integrated the first four chapters research findings and reveals,in reference to "MICSS Education Blueprint ",this study tries to propose an ideal development plan of a MICSS,Chung Hwa Independent High School Kelantan(Dan Zhong),with the hope that every MICSS sustains and thrives on adversity.The main idea is to put forward to curriculum reform and sustainable development financing,namely "Class Selection System" and " Danzhong Education Base".