TUTORIAL WEEK 16

GIFTED EDUCATION IN MALAYSIA

Dr Zainab bt Hussin
Deputy Director, Institut Aminuddin Baki, Ministry of Education, Malaysia.

A nations 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 tomorrows 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 societys 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
learning keperluana gifted students to Malaysia one of Mensa international association

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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
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

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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 schools 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 schools

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 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

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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
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

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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
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 Ministers 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

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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
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

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