TASK 1: TO WHAT EXTENT TEACHER AWARENESSS OF CULTURAL

DIVERSITY IN THE CLASSROOM HELP TO ACHIEVE THE 1

MALAYSIA CONCEPTS IN LINE WITH THE GOAL AND SHIFT IN
THE MALAYSIA EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT PLAN 2013-2025.
Malaysia has chosen a different route - that of unity in diversity and
inclusiveness, while ensuring fairness to all. The food we eat, the music we listen to,
and the clothes we wear have all been influenced by different cultures and ethnics.
The phrase Cultural Diversity means a range of different societies or peoples with
different origins, religions and traditions all living and interacting together. Some
countries with plural societies have adopted the concept of full assimilation to forge
or even force a single national identity. Creating oneness or unity within a multireligious and multi-cultural nation is challenging. It is important that teachers are
conscious of the extent of their cultural diversity in order to meet the challenges of
teaching in culturally diverse settings. Teachers are born into a culture and through
socialization processes learn about culture, which ultimately represents our reality
and world view. It is important to learn that not everyone is the same. Carrie
Rothstein, Elise Trumbull (2008) maintains that teachers should possess high level of
cultural awareness in order to meet the needs of a diversely populated student body.
Teacher in classrooms needs to ensure that all students are respected for their own
unique sets of differences. Cultural diversity have been assessed in regards to race,
gender, social class, language, religious beliefs, customs, taboos and the others.
With this kind of awareness, people can live in harmony and be co-operative with the
others, therefore 1 Malaysia Concepts in line with the shift in the Malaysia Education
Development Plan 2013-2015 can be achieved.
1 Malaysia Concept
The Prime Minister of Malaysia, YAB Datos Seri Najib Tun Razak has made
waves to all corners of the nation with the introduction of 1Malaysia concept. The
1Malaysia is a concept to edify unity among the multi-racial Malaysian citizens,
based on a number of significant values which should be practised by all Malaysians.
1 Malaysia emphasises the attitude and fortitude of acceptance among the multiracial citizens, whereby a race will accept the uniqueness of another race as is, so as
to live in respect of each other as a citizen of a nation. 1Malaysia seeks to improve
the relations of all Malaysians, regardless of racial, religious or cultural background.
The concept unveiled is a guiding principle to build a united and progressive nation,
and to inculcate the spirit and values of togetherness and sense of belongings,

regardless of race, religion and creed. In Malaysian classroom, we can see that it is
multiracial, multi cultural and teacher has different teaching ways.
Malaysians have been encouraged to get to know the cultures and observances
of other races, as it would rid them of prejudiced views of others and this effort may
pave the way for better and deeper understanding among the various races.
Experience in the past, the incident of 13 May 1969 due to the prejudices and racial
which resulted in bloodshed and at the same time it had became our alert of national
integration and be united. Teacher needs to understand different culture. For
example, there is difference between urban and rural area pupils. Urban area pupils
are more emphasize on education than rural pupils. Malaysians can achieve a
considerable level of harmony and unity if such values are instilled in children and
what better place to start than in schools. According to Ir. Dr. Hasnul Mohamad
Salleh, most children have no qualms about mixing with their peers of different racial
or religious backgrounds, and school authorities and the Government should zoom in
on school children to ensure that its efforts at promoting racial integration pay off.
When schoolmates of different racial backgrounds get along well, it will not take long
for their parents to make that extra effort to get to know their childrens friends and
their parents, who in turn may become their friends too. Once children have a
network of friends from different backgrounds, they will certainly look beyond race,
colour or religion and we will eventually have a generation of 1Malaysians.
Providing Equal Access to Quality Education of An International Standard
Besides that, the cultural diversity in the classroom can be accessed through
the shift in Malaysia Education Development Plan 2013-2025. Education is seen as a
means of redressing the ethnic imbalances and of creating a sense of national unity
among the diverse ethnic groups. The first shift is providing equal access to quality
education of an international standard. To address these student aspirations and to
prepare the nation to perform at the international level, it is imperative that the
Malaysia education system be transformed so as to provide equal access to quality
education, to reduce achievement gaps such as rural-urban, socioeconomic, gender,
to give children shared values and experiences by embracing diversity and to
maximize student outcomes within the current budget. To improve the quality of
education, Malaysia will continue to benchmark the learning of languages,
mathematics and science to international standards. No matter what the races,
ethnics, religious you are, every student will receive a strong grounding in foundation

skills of literacy and numeracy as well as in Science. Besides that, the newly
implemented Primary School Standard Curriculum (KSSR) will be introduced to all
the pupils in whole Malaysia. The learning and content standards that are outlined in
KSSR were specifically aimed towards ensuring pupils acquire basic literacy skills to
ensure all primary school pupils have basic literacy skills after three years of formal
schooling. The national curriculum will be benchmarked to international standards to
produce students with the skills required to compete at an international level. Here,
we can see that, all the pupils are using the same syllabus and it did not directed to
any race, gender, religion and the others. Every pupil is given opportunities to pursue
quality education. The content in the KSSR is designed based on pupils multiple
intelligences. The Ministry of Education made an effort to ensure that all students
have the opportunity to receive a high quality education.
Ensure Every Child is Proficient in Bahasa Malaysia and English Language
Apart from that, every child is proficient in Bahasa Malaysia and English
Language and is encouraged to learn an additional language is outlined in the
second shift. Cultural diversity can be seen in this shift. Malaysias multicultural
society makes it is a natural environment for producing students who are proficient in
more than one language. As we all know, in Malaysia, Bahasa Malaysia is our
national language. It is a compulsory subject in primary and secondary school.
Besides that, Malay language has been stipulated as the medium of instruction in the
national education system. People used it to communicate with each others. It is a
common language as Malaysians used Bahasa Malaysia to interact and
communicate with others. In school, pupils can use the same language to
communicate with their friends no matter what races and ethnics they are. It means
that, Chinese, Malay, Iban, Bidayuh, Indian who educated in Malaysia should learn
and use Bahasa Malaysia as a medium of delivering messages. When it comes to
everybody using the same language, people can avoid themselves from
miscommunication and misunderstandings. In multi-racial societies very often there
are misunderstandings, which lead to conflict. These misunderstandings are due to
people using different languages but fortunately for countries, which have a natural
language, speak more commonly that language. In multi-racial societies very often
there are misunderstandings, which lead to conflict. Therefore, pupils have been set
that they must get at least a pass in this language. In the other hand, English
language has become international language. English is widely spoken in Malaysia
and English is actively known as a second language. It is easy to live in urban areas of

Malaysia by only speaking the English language. The Ministry will make the subject of
English as compulsory for the students to pass the English SPM paper from 2016 in
order to obtain their SPM certificate. Therefore, students will have greater exposure to
the language in order to improve their proficiency of the language. The Malaysian
government implemented a policy that made English the medium of instruction for
mathematics and sciences. The objective is to produce a generation of students who are
scientifically and technologically knowledgeable and fluent in English. Besides that, many
pupils learn additional languages apart from Bahasa Malaysia and English language,
which equip them well for entering the workforce. Every child is given opportunity to learn
an additional language from primary to secondary school. The ministry will also
encourage every pupil to learn an additional language like Chinese, Tamil or Arabic as
well as the mother tongue or another international language.

Transform Teaching into Profession of Choice

It is in line with shift 4 as in advanced countries, Malaysia is striving toward an allgraduate teaching force. It is not only about children in the classroom but it was also
about teacher. The Ministry Education has upgraded the Teacher Training College into
Teacher Training Institutes that offer degree programs to pre-service teacher. It is open
publicly to all the races and it is not just focus on Malay or Chinese. For example, there is
not necessary Chinese will get Bahasa Cina, but they may take the Bahasa Malaysia or
English language courses. So, we can see that Malaysia is a multicultural country. The
ministry is also collaborating with many of the local universities including Open
Universities to offer degree programme to in-service teachers. The Malaysian teaching
force is hoped to be achieved through Continuing Professional Development from

2013 onwards with greater emphasis on school-based learning.

Develop values-driven Malaysians
Furthermore, through the third shift on developing values-driven Malaysians, the
Islamic Education and Moral Education would be reviewed to add activities like roleplaying, simulations, discussions and small group assignment. The ministry will look
into having Moral and Islamic Education students share certain classes together
when common universal values are taught. Moral and Religious education the way
they have been taught can be seen from the character of the younger generation.
Schools are beset with discipline problems despite these being examination subjects.
Imparting knowledge or facilitating learning is only one responsibility of teachers. The
Islamic Education is for Islam pupils. There is a subject known as Moral Education
can help to in developing the desirable characteristics or moral values of students

and it is for other non-Islam pupils. In the content of KSSR, there are many moral
values that can be instilled among the students. Teacher can teach the moral values
through story. For example, if teacher teaches the story The Hare and the Tortoise,
teacher should instil the value of the story as we should be humble. The examples
of , moral value are be grateful, love our family, love the pets and the others. Teacher
needs to tell children that even though different people believe in different religious
background such as Christian, Islam and Buddha and Hindu, but one thing for sure is
all the religions teach good things. As long as religion is not used as a weapon to
aggrandize one's self, to act superior or hurtful, but to enhance the good in the self
and other humans, to enhance the lives of those who need it, to be humble and
respectful of our fellow beings, then religion is positive practice.
Leverage ICT to Scale Up Quality Learning across Malaysia
Apart from that, Malaysia like many countries in the region, has invested heavily
in the use of ICT in schools since 1999 under the Smart School Initiative. Unlike
other countries, Malaysia does not rely on a single specialized agency or a particular
division of the Ministry of Education to implement its ICT in education programmes.
Instead, the Malaysian Government rolled out a nationwide initiative known as the
Smart School Initiative. The initiatives involve the use of ICT in the teaching and
learning process as well as in the management and administration of schools. The
Education Blueprint recommends that the Ministry provide Internet access and virtual
learning environments via 1BestariNet for all ten thousand Malaysian schools by
2013. In the educational system it is very important that there is a wide array of
diverse groups in the classroom, It is important to have a diverse student body, not
only to create a realistic setting but also to encourage people to grow outside their
boundaries and learn something new about a culture they may not be familiar with.
Through the ICT, teacher can teach pupils different culture, festivals, customs and
rituals by different races. For example, through the LCD projector, teacher can show
the food, festivals, customs and rituals, religions by the different ethnics in Malaysia.
Pupils can know the characteristics, features of a culture. This is why diversity in the
classroom is such an important part of a childs development, by the child being
exposed to diverse cultures the child can get a better understanding of why the child
dresses this way, acts that way or cant eat this or that. The result is that children will
question their own beliefs and understand how their own culture influences the way
they see the world.
classroom.

Through using ICT, pupils will participate actively in the

Partner with Parents, Community and Private Sector at Scale

Next one of the shift in Malaysia Education Development Plan 2013-2025 can
increase teachers awareness of cultural diversity in the classroom is maximise
partner with parents, community and private sector at scale. Every parent will be an
active partner in their childs learning. Parents can attend the activities that
conducted by school such as Persatuan Ibu bapa dan Guru (PIBG) or Hari
Permuafakatan that provides input on school-based management matters as well as
parent toolkit to support student learning. Parents are expected to compatible with
teachers to improve their childs performance. If their children get an unfavourable
score, teacher can find the childs parents and talk to them about the performance of
the children in the school. For this, different races and gender teacher may talk to the
different races and gender of the parents for the children. For example, Chinese
teacher interact with the parents of the children which is an Indian by using English.
Here, we can see that although they are from different cultural background, but they
are able to communicate by using international language which is English language.
For the PIBG, PIBGs will provide input on how the school can make the national
curriculum more relevant to the needs of the local community and provide feedback
on the quality of teaching and learning experienced by their children. PIBG and
school leaders will work together to define the solutions for the particular issues.
Here, the PIBG may come from different genders, races, ethics and cultural
background, but they may communicate with school leader and teachers from other
races and ethics too. They may use Bahasa Malaysia or English language to
communicate with each other.
Maximise Student Outcomes for Every Ringgit
The last shift will be maximise student outcomes for every ringgit. Every
programme launched by the Ministry will be linked to specific targets in terms of
student outcomes. The federal, state and district offices will undertake an annual
review exercise to evaluate the programmes success in meeting these targets. The
Ministry will also shift towards need-based financial aid programmes. Low-income
families will continue to receive the aid they need to keep their children in schools.
Children can use the money to buy some stationary, uniform, shoes and the others.
The money that allocated is for all the children that in needs in regardless of races,
religion, ethnics, language, gender in all SJK(c) or SK. The money that allocated
should be used on pupils but not for other things.

All in all, a multi-racial society is a society where we have people of different

races, ethnics living together. A wide and variety of traditions, customs and festivals
have being carried out in Malaysia. A multi-racial society is also a multi linguist
society so people living in such societies benefit from the richness of languages. A
multi-racial society is very rich in culture heritage, where you get the opportunity to
learn about other cultures. To be good or bad does not depend on religion. Each of
the great religion of the world speaks about love, peace and tolerance. A multi-racial
society teaches people how to respect and understand the religion and cultures of
others. Therefore this leads to tolerance. It helps us to learn to become a good
human being.