Multiple school systems in a plural society
Victoria Institution, an English-medium school for boys in Kuala Lumpur which was established by a Christian missionary order in 1894.
A multiple system of schools teaching in different languages and nurturing different cultural and political identities developed in colonial Malaya, reflecting and further exacerbating social fragmentation between the various ethnic groups. Malay children studied in pondok, madrasah or Malay primary schools, while Chinese and Indian children went to schools which used their respective mother tongues. A small multiracial élite in the towns attended English schools which provided them with a channel to the only higher education available locally up to 1941.
- Information in the full article includes
- Pondok and madrasah
- Secular Malay education
- Schools for the children of immigrants
- The emergence of a Westernized élite