KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 9 — The Ministry of Education (MOE) and the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) are reviewing the technical aspects of implementing the recent decision to make Bahasa Melayu and History compulsory under the national curriculum across all educational streams in Malaysia.

Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abd Kadir said the review focuses on learning assessment, examinations and quality monitoring, particularly for international schools, rakyat religious schools, tahfiz schools and Chinese private schools.

Several discussion sessions have begun, including meetings between Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek and representatives from the United Chinese School Committees’ Association of Malaysia (Dong Zong), the Chinese School Teachers Association (Jiao Zong), as well as tahfiz, rakyat religious and international schools.

“In these meetings, MOE discussed requirements for students in non-national curriculum schools to sit for Bahasa Melayu and History at the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) level. MOE will formally communicate all decisions to the relevant parties,” he said while winding up the debate on the Royal Address motion for KPT in the Dewan Rakyat today.

For MOHE, Zambry said a stakeholder engagement session was held on February 4 with associations of Malaysian international schools, the British Malaysian Chambers of Commerce Education Committee, Help International Schools Group, Sunway International Schools and Taylor’s Education Group.

During the session, international schools, religious schools and Chinese private schools confirmed that SPM examination pathways are already in place to enable students to continue their studies at public universities (IPTA).

“Over 87 percent of Chinese private school students sit for the SPM,” he said.

Regarding changes to the Matriculation and Form Six programmes, Zambry said MOHE and MOE are reviewing legal, welfare, financial, staffing, system and asset considerations.

A Joint Steering Committee between MOHE and MOE, established on Dec 19 last year, is assessing all aspects, including the optimisation of existing resources for both programmes.

MOHE will assume full responsibility for the pre-university system, including Form Six and Matriculation, starting next year. — Bernama