Pursuing unity through education

PRIMARY education in this country has changed a fair bit. Two major reports, the Razak Report (1956) and the Rahman Talib Report (1960), resulted in two pieces of legislation that, amongst other aims, made education a primary tool to foster national unity. As a means of unifying the country, their main focus was on making Malay the national language and English a lingua franca. The laws were also aimed at streamlining the school system.

Prior to the re-organisation from January 1957, there were two stages in a child's primary education, where teaching in the English language was concerned. First, he would have to undergo a basic elementary education for two years before he could move on to a primary school for the next four years. The smarter ones would then progress to the secondary school stage after overcoming some Government examinations along the way. Double promotions were already not unheard of, while there were many reported instances of over-aged pupils too. Too many, in fact.

A few primary schools were already considered as the feeder schools to Penang Free School. First, there was the Northam Road Government School which operated from 1922 to 1933. Hutchings School came into existence in 1928 after the Free School relocated to newer premises in Green Lane and the old premises in Farquhar Street was converted into the primary school. Then there was Francis Light School which was established two years later in 1930 and finally, Westlands School followed in 1935.

These non-missionary schools provided primary education in English from Standard Three onwards till Standard Six. So what about Standards One and Two? For these two years, a child would have to enrol in elementary schools such as the Hillview Government English School that was set up in 1924 (and which later became the Wellesley School in 1936).

When I was trying to get confirmation from a few people who were senior to me in age that this was their primary school experience in the 1950s, I learnt that they had indeed studied at Wellesley School for their first two years of education. After that, their parents had applied for them to continue with their primary school education, Standards Three to Six, at the Francis Light, Hutchings or Westlands Schools.

All this changed at the start of the school year in January 1957 as a result of the implementation of a new education policy. In May 1956, the Federal Legislative Council had debated and unanimously adopted a new 10-year education plan, called the Razak Report, which was proposed by the then Minister of Education, Abdul Razak Hussein. The following excerpt is extracted from The Straits Times of 17 May 1956:

“I ask the council to endorse the policy in this report so that with the dawning of merdeka we can provide a happy and glorious future for every child born in Malaya,” he said. “No member will blink the fact that our educational plan is ambitious, a challenge to the skill and resources of the Government machinery. The country is going through a period of political transition. Political freedom and full nationhood are round the corner. Therefore, as Malaya enters this new era in her history, let us give our children ideals and loyalties to which they can stretch their hands and which can promise them a happy and contented future. This report lays the foundation of a national system of education on which a united Malayan nation will be born and grow into a happy and stately manhood. I am grateful to the public for having received the report with understanding and support,” he added.

“Strangely enough,” he continued, “the little opposition there has been came from the Malays whom the report is intended to benefit. The Minister referred to a headline in a Malay newspaper which said: "The education report eliminates the Malay language. It gives statutory recognition to English and other languages...”

He commented: “Can a sane and sensible person honestly believe that this report has the effect of eliminating the Malay language when its main recommendation is to enlarge and enrich the Malay language and uphold and uplift Malay education? The report is centred on a policy to make Malay the national language of the country and to raise the standard and the status of the Malay language. In formulating the new education policy, the committee tried to meet the various viewpoints as far as it could. We could not meet fully all the viewpoints expressed (but we are under no delusion that we would have pleased everyone with this report. We would consider ourselves extremely lucky if we had pleased the majority of the people.”

Razak said that the committee had borne in mind the importance of bringing children of all races under a national system of education, and recommended that there should be a uniformity of conditions and a common content of syllabuses. “We strongly believe that one of the essential elements in the building of a united Malayan nation is that children of all races should learn the same things in the same way at school,” he said. “They may not initially learn them through the same language but so long as they learn the same things about Malaya we consider this country will have gone a long way towards establishing a national system of education. This as stated in our terms of reference, ‘would satisfy the need of the people and promote their cultural, social, economic and political development as a nation’.”

The report recommended that there should be a variety of primary schools falling into two broad types – standard primary schools with Malay, the national language, as the medium of instruction, and standard-type primary schools in which the medium of instruction may be Kuo Yu or Tamil or English. In the standard primary schools English will be a compulsory subject, and Kuo Yu or Tamil will be taught if there are 15 or more children whose parents want them to learn these languages. Malay and English will be compulsory in standard-type primary schools. There will be established one type of national secondary school where the pupils work towards a common syllabus and to the same final examination. Malay and English will be compulsory.

Razak said: “English is still essential for use, particularly for dealing with the outside world. Therefore, the report recommends that English should be compulsory.”

On the development of the Malay language, the Minister said: “As Malaya grows into a nation, it is desirable that there should be a national language which can serve as a medium of communication among the people of all races domiciled here. Having accepted Malay as the national language, it is the duty of the Government and the people of the country, not only Malays but of all races, to do all we can to develop, enrich and enlarge that language so that it will be able to give expressions to our thought and ideas on science, economics, philosophy and the like. I can assure this council and the country generally that there is a field of opportunities in this work. the establishment of a literature agency is well in hand. This agency will be entrusted with the main task of producing books of literature in Malay not only for schools but for the general public. The report recommends as a matter of urgency the establishment of a language institute which will, in the main, train teachers for teaching Malay.”

The Rahman Talib Report of 1960, which was incorporated into the Education Act 1961, went further to speed up the process of national integration and unity through education. This 1960 report fine-tuned the proposals made in the earlier Razak Report and among the recommendations made were to make the Malay language the main language in schools, the Government providing free primary school education and automatic promotion till Form Three, an emphasis on religious and moral education, stressing on Membaca, Menulis dan Mengira (reading, writing and arithmetic) as fundamental education skills, stressing on a Malayan curriculum, providing an opportunity to continue education from nine years to 11 years, and streaming upper secondary education into either academic or vocational depending on the pupil's aptitude,

A consequence of this 1960 report, approved by Parliament in August that year, was that there would be universal free primary education in all fully-assisted schools as from January 1962. I remember being told by the class teacher that school fees would no longer be collected at Westlands School. I also remember that when I was in Standard One, I had to bring $2.50 to school at the start of every month and the money was carefully tied up in the corner of a handkerchief so that I wouldn't lose it. Another result of the implementation of this report was that the “standard” and “standard-type” schools would henceforth be known as “national (kebangsaan)” and “national-type (jenis kebangsaan)” primary and secondary schools.

Abdul Rahman Talib was appointed Minister of Education in January 1960, taking over from Razak. One of his first tasks was to send a message to all schools calling on the pupils to study the National Language. This was in conjunction with the country's first National Language Week. A month later, he chaired the Education Review Committee that had been formed to consider, among other things, the financial implications of introducing free primary education in Malaya.

The committee’s report was published on 3 Aug 1960 and predictably faced objections from Chinese language educators in the country who charged that “Chinese secondary education would be eliminated and that denial of public examinations in Chinese amounted to ousting the Chinese language from the education system.” But in reality, for the first time in the country, free primary education in Chinese - and also in English and Tamil – was to be available to all who wanted it. There were specific provisions for the study of the Chinese language and literature at both primary and secondary levels in the fully-assisted schools. And there was nothing to prevent the establishment of independent schools teaching in whatever medium they chose. (The Straits Times, 8 Nov 1960)

As a footnote, I had also touched briefly on the Razak Report in Let the Aisles Proclaim:

In September 1955, the Government appointed the then Minister of Education, Dato’ Abdul Razak bin Hussain, to head a committee to examine the existing education policy in the Federation and recommend a new national education policy which would be acceptable to the people. The committee’s terms of reference were to “satisfy their needs and promote their cultural, social, economic and political development as a nation, having regard to the intention to make Malay the national language of the country whilst preserving and sustaining the growth of the language and culture of other communities living in the country.” Between September 1955 and April 1956, eight meetings were held before the Report of the Education Committee 1956 was released in May.

The main principle of this Razak Report, implemented by means of the Education Ordinance 1957, was not new. Education as the instrument of nation-building was already the basis of the Barnes Report and the Education Ordinance of 1952. But where the Razak Report differed was the elevation of the Malay language to the dominant position in the education system. Ultimately, the Malay language would be the main medium of instruction in schools but in the meantime, the report provided for Malay, English, Chinese and Tamil schools to continue at the primary school level, and Malay and English schools at the secondary school level. The Malay-medium schools would be known as “national schools” while the others were “national-type schools.” All schools would be funded by the Government and use a common national curriculum. Among the other recommendations in the report were that Malay and English should be compulsory subjects in all primary and secondary schools; instruction in Kuo-Yu and Tamil should be taught in all aided primary schools when needed; the Lower Certificate of Education and the Federation of Malaya Certificate of Education would be introduced for candidates from all secondary schools, and a Board of Governors would be established in schools.

Reference: Quah Seng Sun. Let the Aisles Proclaim, pp.200-201. Publisher: The Penang Free School Foundation (2016)

© Quah Seng Sun