The Educational Landscape of Malaysia

Abstract

The term ‘landscape’ typically connotes a broad view of the lay of the land – its topography and changing contours of highlands and lowlands and changing vegetation. Etymologically, the suffix scape comes from the Old English word sceppan or scyppan, meaning shape. Thus, by derivation, the word landscape would refer to the shape of the land, and landscape artists, for instance, would seek to represent a view of the scenery seen and capture it with a ‘broad brush’. In contrast to portraits which offer a close-up view, landscapes offer the benefit of a view from afar, thus capturing the big picture. So, metaphorically, Malaysia’s educational landscape, likewise, paints a broad picture of the ‘topography’ of the education scene in the country, covering with a broad brush aspects of its history, the organization of the education system and major emergent themes. The main purpose of the chapter is then to provide the context against which subsequent chapters may be viewed.