title: Bobbie Nelson

text: At age sixteen, Nelson met Bud Fletcher and they married. Although Fletcher did not have musical abilities, he formed his own band, Bud Fletcher and the Texans, limiting his participation to directing it. She joined on the piano, while her brother sang and played guitar. The band was disassembled in 1955 when she divorced Bud Fletcher, who was sick. She lost custody of her sons Randy, Michael, and Freddy for playing in honky-tonks and custody was given to her ex-husband's parents. When Fletcher died in a car accident in 1961, Nelson suffered a breakdown and was admitted to a hospital in Fort Worth. To retrieve custody of their children, she married again and started working in a television repair shop in town. The owner of the store rented a piano to comfort her as she recovered. She began working for the Hammond Organ Company, demonstrating and selling their products. She retrieved the custody of her sons and moved to Austin, Texas. In 1965, after her third marriage failed, she visited Nashville, where her brother was working in his music career. She played in different restaurants and other venues until her brother called her from New York in 1973, where he was recording with Atlantic Records. She joined Willie on piano for the recordings, which eventually included the albums "The Troublemaker", "Shotgun Willie" and "Phases and Stages". She joined Willie Nelson's newly formed band, "The Family", full-time and started touring with him.


title: Bobbie Nelson

text: Nelson released her solo debut album, "Audiobiography", in 2008 Nine years later, she was inducted into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame. In 2020, Nelson co-authored with her brother and writer David Ritz the autobiography "Me and Sister Bobbie: True Tales of the Family Band". Nelson played her last show with her brother on October 9, 2021 in New Braunfels, Texas.


title: Digable Planets

text: Digable Planets () is an American hip hop trio formed in 1987. The trio is composed of rappers Ishmael "Butterfly" Butler, Mariana "Ladybug Mecca" Vieira, and Craig "Doodlebug" Irving. The group is notable for their contributions to the subgenres of jazz rap and alternative hip hop.


title: Digable Planets

text: Butler and Irving met in Philadelphia in the late 1980s. Originally from Seattle, Butler was interning at Sleeping Bag Records in New York and would visit his grandmother in Philadelphia, where he met local native Irving, who was rapping with a group called the Dread Poets Society. Irving had in turn met Vieira, who was originally from Silver Spring, Maryland, while attending Howard University in Washington, D.C.


title: Digable Planets

text: The initial demos recorded under the name Digable Planets featured only Butler, but after a brief stint with two other members, Butler began collaborating with Irving and Vieira in 1989.


title: Digable Planets

text: The group signed to Pendulum Records in 1992 and all three band members moved to Brooklyn, New York. Their debut album "Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space)" was released in 1993 and certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The album's lead single, "Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)" became a crossover hit, peaking at #15 on "Billboard" magazine's singles chart, earning gold certification by the RIAA, and winning Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group at the Grammy Awards. The track peaked at #67 in the UK Singles Chart in February 1995.


title: Digable Planets

text: The group's second album "Blowout Comb" was released in 1994. The album was noted by critics as a stark departure from the previous album, being darker, less hook-oriented and more overtly political in its references to Black Panther and communist imagery. Writing for "Spin" in December 1994, Craig Marks declared it "... a beguiling, demanding, damn near revolutionary follow-up." "Blowout Comb" features guest appearances from artists Jeru the Damaja, Sulaiman and Guru of Gang Starr.


title: Digable Planets

text: In the same year, the group appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation album, "". The album, meant to raise awareness and funds in support of the AIDS epidemic in relation to the African American community, was heralded as "Album of the Year" by "Time" magazine. The band subsequently disbanded in early 1995 citing "creative differences".


title: Digable Planets

text: In February 2005 the trio reunited and embarked on a reunion tour, which was followed by the release of a compilation album titled " "on October 15, 2005. The album combined previously released material with remixes and B-sides. From 2009 to 2011, Butler and Irving toured across the U.S., Canada, and Europe with a live band, the Cosmic Funk Orchestra.


title: Digable Planets

text: The group performed at Numbers, in Houston, Texas, on May 15, 2010, alongside the hip hop duo Camp Lo. During an interview with the "Houston Chronicle" near the time of this show, Irving stated that a new single would be released, called "Fresh Out", and that a new album was planned for digital release in summer of 2010. The group also performed alongside hip-hop group The Pharcyde at the North by Northeast music festival in Toronto, Ontario on June 19, 2011.


title: Digable Planets

text: A reunion show scheduled for December 2012 in Seattle, Washington was cancelled days before the performance. When asked in a subsequent interview about the group's status, Butler stated "I think it's the end." Despite Butler's previous statement, it was announced in October 2015 that the trio would again reunite for a concert at Seattle's Neptune Theatre on December 30 alongside Shabazz Palaces. Digable Planets held a reunion tour during spring and summer 2016, followed by the release of their live album "Digable Planets Live" in June 2017.


title: Digable Planets

text: Butler released "Bright Black" under the moniker Cherrywine in 2003 before going on to collaborate with multi-instrumentalist Tendai "Baba" Maraire as the group Shabazz Palaces, which has released five albums. Butler has also been employed by Sub Pop's A&R division and is helping the label build its repertoire of artists that are "imaginative" and "daring". Butler and Maraire later collaborated with Hussein Kalonji as Chimurenga Renaissance to release "riZe vadZimu riZe "in March 2014 on Brick Lane Records.


title: Digable Planets

text: Irving, also known as Cee Knowledge, released two albums under the name Cee Knowledge & The Cosmic Funk Orchestra. Vieira, also known as Lady Mecca, released "Trip The Light Fantastic" in 2005. She has continued to collaborate regularly with other musicians, notably on Legacy/Sony's Billie Holiday "Remixed and Reimagined" album, Del tha Funkee Homosapien's "Eleventh Hour", and with hip-hop supergroup eMC. Vieira joined hip hop group Dino 5 as the voice of Tracy Triceratops. Vieira later joined Brazilian hip hop fusion group BROOKZILL! with fellow Dino 5 member Prince Paul.


title: Presidio of San Francisco

text: The Presidio of San Francisco (originally, El Presidio Real de San Francisco or The Royal Fortress of Saint Francis) is a park and former U.S. Army post on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula in San Francisco, California, and is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.


title: Presidio of San Francisco

text: It had been a fortified location since September 17, 1776, when New Spain established the presidio to gain a foothold in Alta California and the San Francisco Bay. It passed to Mexico in 1820, which in turn passed it to the United States in 1848. As part of a 1989 military reduction program under the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process, Congress voted to end the Presidio's status as an active military installation of the U.S. Army. On October 1, 1994, it was transferred to the National Park Service, ending 219 years of military use and beginning its next phase of mixed commercial and public use.


title: Presidio of San Francisco

text: In 1996, the United States Congress created the Presidio Trust to oversee and manage the interior 80% of the park's lands, with the National Park Service managing the coastal 20%. In a first-of-its-kind structure, Congress mandated that the Presidio Trust make the Presidio financially self-sufficient by 2013. The Presidio achieved the goal in 2005, eight years ahead of the scheduled deadline.


title: Presidio of San Francisco

text: The park has many wooded areas, hills, and scenic vistas overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay, and the Pacific Ocean. It was recognized as a California Historical Landmark in 1933 and as a National Historic Landmark in 1962.


title: Presidio of San Francisco

text: The Presidio was originally a Spanish fort sited by Juan Bautista de Anza on March 28, 1776, built by a party led by José Joaquín Moraga later that year. In 1783, the Presidio's garrison numbered only 33 men. Upon Mexican independence from Spain in 1821, it was briefly operated as a Mexican fortification. The Presidio was seized by the U.S. military at the start of the Mexican–American War in 1846. It was officially re-opened by the Americans in 1848 and became home to several army headquarters and units, the last being the United States 6th Army. Several famous U.S. generals, such as William Sherman, George Henry Thomas, and John Pershing, made their homes here.


title: Presidio of San Francisco

text: During its long history, the Presidio was involved in most of America's military engagements in the Pacific Rim. Importantly, it was the assembly point for army forces that invaded the Philippines during the Spanish–American War, America's first major military engagement in the region.


title: Presidio of San Francisco

text: Beginning in the 1890s, the Presidio was home to the Letterman Army Medical Center (LAMC), named in 1911 for Jonathan Letterman, the medical director of the Civil War-era Army of the Potomac. LAMC provided thousands of war-wounded with high quality medical care during every US foreign conflict of the 20th century.


title: Presidio of San Francisco

text: One of the last two remaining cemeteries within the city's limits is the San Francisco National Cemetery. Among the military personnel interred there are General Frederick Funston, hero of the Spanish–American War, Philippine–American War, and commanding officer of the Presidio at the time of the 1906 earthquake; and General Irvin McDowell, a Union Army commander who was defeated by the Confederates in the First Battle of Bull Run.


title: Presidio of San Francisco

text: The Marine Hospital operated a cemetery for merchant seamen approximately from the hospital property. Based on city municipal records, historians estimate that the cemetery was in use from 1885 to 1912. As part of the "Trails Forever" initiative, the Parks Conservancy, the National Park Service, and the Presidio Trust partnered to build a walking trail along the south side of the site featuring interpretive signage about its history.


title: Presidio of San Francisco

text: The Presidio was the home of the Western Defense Command headquarters during World War II. It was here that Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt signed 108 Civilian Exclusion Orders and directives for the internment of Japanese Americans under the authority of Executive Order 9066 signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942.


title: Presidio of San Francisco

text: The Presidio sent its few remaining units to war for the last time in 1991 for Desert Storm, the First Gulf War. The role of Sixth Army was management of training and coordinating deployment of Army National Guard and U.S. Army Reserve units in the Western U.S. for Operation Desert Storm.


title: Presidio of San Francisco

text: After a hard-fought battle, the Presidio averted being sold at auction and came under the management of the Presidio Trust, a U.S. government corporation established by an act of Congress in 1996.


title: Presidio of San Francisco

text: The Presidio Trust now manages most of the park in partnership with the National Park Service. The trust has jurisdiction over the interior 80 percent of the Presidio, including nearly all of its historic structures. The National Park Service manages coastal areas. Primary law enforcement throughout the Presidio is the jurisdiction of the United States Park Police.


title: Presidio of San Francisco

text: One of main objectives of the Presidio Trust's program was achieving financial self-sufficiency by fiscal year 2013, which was reached in 2006. Immediately after its inception, the Trust began preparing rehabilitation plans for the park. Many areas had to be decontaminated before they could be prepared for public use.


title: Presidio of San Francisco

text: The Presidio Trust Act calls for "preservation of the cultural and historic integrity of the Presidio for public use." The Act also requires that the Presidio Trust be financially self-sufficient by 2013. These imperatives have resulted in numerous conflicts between the need to maximize income by leasing historic buildings, and permitting public use despite most structures being rented privately. Further differences have arisen from the divergent needs of preserving the integrity of the National Historic Landmark District in the face of new construction, competing pressures for natural habitat restoration, and requirements for commercial purposes that impede public access.


title: Presidio of San Francisco

text: Crissy Field, a former airfield, has undergone extensive restoration and now serves as very popular recreational area. It borders on the San Francisco Marina in the east and on the Golden Gate Bridge in the west.


title: Presidio of San Francisco

text: The park has a large inventory of approximately 800 buildings, many of them historical. By 2004, about 50% of the buildings on park grounds had been restored and partially remodeled. The Presidio Trust has contracted commercial real estate management companies to help attract and retain residential and commercial tenants. The total capacity is estimated at 5,000 residents when all buildings have been rehabilitated. Among the Presidio's residents is The Bay School of San Francisco, a private coeducational college preparatory school located in the central Main Post area. Others include The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Tides Foundation, the Arion Press, Sports Basement Presidio, and The Walt Disney Family Museum, a museum in the memory of Walt Disney. Many various commercial enterprises also lease buildings on the Presidio, including Starbucks Coffee.


title: Presidio of San Francisco

text: The Presidio of San Francisco is the only site in a national recreation area with an extensive residential leasing program.


title: Presidio of San Francisco

text: The Presidio has four creeks that are currently being restored by park stewards and volunteers to expand the former extents of their riparian habitats. The creeks are Lobos and Dragonfly creeks, El Polin Spring, and Coyote Gulch.


title: Presidio of San Francisco

text: The Trust entered a major agreement with Lucasfilm to build a new facility called the Letterman Digital Arts Center (LDAC), which is now Lucasfilm's corporate headquarters. The site replaced portions of what was the Letterman Hospital. George Lucas won the development rights for of the Presidio, in June 1999, after beating out a number of rival plans including a leading proposal by the Shorenstein Company. LDAC replaced the former Lucasfilm headquarters in San Rafael. The $300 million development includes nearly of office space and a underground parking garage with a capacity of 2,500 employees. Lucasfilm's Industrial Light & Magic, Lucas Licensing, and Lucas Online divisions reside at the site. George Lucas's proposal included plans for a high-tech Presidio museum and a "Great Lawn" that is now open to the public.


title: Presidio of San Francisco

text: In 2007, Donald Fisher, founder of the Gap clothing stores and former Board member of the Presidio Trust, announced a plan to build a museum tentatively named the Contemporary Art Museum of the Presidio, to house his art collection. Due to opposition, Fisher withdrew his plans to build the museum in the Presidio and instead donated the art to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art before his death in 2009.


title: Presidio of San Francisco

text: As the Doyle Drive viaduct was deemed seismically unsafe and obsolete, construction started on the demolition of Doyle Drive in 2008 to replace the structure with a flat, broad-lane highway with a tunnel through the bluffs above Crissy Field, called the Presidio Parkway. The project costs $1 billion and was scheduled to be completed by 2016.


title: Presidio of San Francisco

text: The Trust plans to create a promenade that will link the Lombard gate and the new Lucasfilm campus to the Main Post and ultimately to the Golden Gate Bridge. The promenade is part of a trails expansion plan that will add of new pathways and eight scenic overlooks throughout the park.


title: Presidio of San Francisco

text: In October 2008, artist Andy Goldsworthy constructed the first of a series of sculptures in the Presidio, the "Spire". It is tall and located near the Arguello Gate. It represents the tree replanting effort that has been underway at the Presidio. "Spire" was followed by "Wood Line" in 2011, "Tree Fall" in 2013, and "Earth Wall" in 2014.


title: Presidio of San Francisco

text: Crissy Field Center (former Air Service/Air Corps/Army Air Forces airfield) is an urban environmental education center with programs for schools, public workshops, after-school programs, summer camps, and more. The center is operated by the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy and overlooks a restored tidal marsh. The facilities include interactive environmental exhibits, a media lab, resource library, arts workshop, science lab, gathering room, teaching kitchen, café and bookstore. The landscape of Crissy Field was designed by George Hargreaves. The project restored a naturally functioning and sustaining tidal wetland as a habitat for flora and fauna, which were previously not in evidence on the site. It also restored a historic grass airfield that functioned as a culturally significant military airfield between 1919 and 1936. The park at Crissy Field expanded and widened the recreational opportunities of the existing San Francisco shore to a broader number of Presidio residents and visitors.


title: Presidio of San Francisco

text: A major component of the Presidio's park attractions is the Presidio Tunnel Tops, which has created a on top of the tunneled portions of Doyle Drive. The park contains several meadows and walking trails, along with viewpoints for major landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge. Negotiations between Caltrans, the San Francisco County Transportation Authority, and the Presidio Trust to finalize the land transfer for the park lasted from 2015 to 2018. The budget for the park is $100 million, funded with public funds from the Presidio Trust along with private contributions. The park opened for public use on July 17, 2022.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: Education in Malaysia is overseen by the Ministry of Education (). Although education is the responsibility of the Federal Government, each state and federal territory has an Education Department to co-ordinate educational matters in its territory. The main legislation governing education is the Education Act 1996.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: The education system is divided into preschool education, primary education, secondary education, post-secondary education and tertiary education. It is further divided into national and private education. Education may be obtained from the multilingual national school system, which provides free education for all Malaysians, or private schools, or through homeschooling. International and private institutions charge school fees. By law, primary education is compulsory. As in many Asia-Pacific countries such as the Republic of Korea, Singapore and Japan, standardised tests are a common feature. Currently, there are 43 universities, 31 private university colleges, 9 foreign university branch campuses and 414 private colleges in Malaysia.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: Sekolah Pondok (literally, Hut school), Madrasah and other Islamic schools were the earliest forms of schooling available in Malaysia. Early works of Malay literature such as Hikayat Abdullah mention these schools indicating they pre-date the current secular model of education.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: Many of the earliest schools in Malaysia were founded in the Straits Settlements of Penang, Malacca, and Singapore. The oldest English-language school in Malaya is the Penang Free School, founded in 1816, followed by Malacca High School, St. Xavier's Institution, King Edward VII School (Taiping) and Anglo Chinese School, Klang. Many traditionally English-language schools are considered quite prestigious.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: British historian Richard O. Winstedt worked to improve the education of the Malays and was instrumental in establishing Sultan Idris Training College with the purpose of producing Malay teachers. Richard James Wilkinson helped established the Malay College Kuala Kangsar in 1905 which aimed to educate the Malay elite.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: Initially, the British colonial government did not provide for any Malay-language secondary schools, forcing those who had studied in Malay during primary school to adjust to an English-language education should they have the opportunity to commence secondary education. Many Malays failed to pursue additional education due to this issue. Despite complaints about this policy, the British Director of Education stated:


title: Education in Malaysia

text: Malay representatives in the Federal Council as well as the Legislative Council of Singapore responded vehemently, with one calling the British policy "a policy that trains the Malay boy how not to get employment" by excluding the Malays from learning in the "bread-earning language of Malaya". He remarked:


title: Education in Malaysia

text: To remedy this problem, the British established the Malay College Kuala Kangsar. However, it was mainly intended as a way to educate low-level civil servants and not as a means to opening the doors of commerce to the Malays – the school was never intended to prepare students for entrance to higher institutions of education.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: In the 1950s, there had been four initial proposals for developing the national education system: the Barnes Report (favoured by the Malays), Ordinance Report (modification of the Barnes Report), the Fenn-Wu Report (favoured by the Chinese and Indians), and the Razak Report (a compromise between the two reports). The Barnes proposal was implemented through the 1952 Education Ordinance amidst Chinese protests. In 1956, the Razak Report was adopted by the Malayan government as the education framework for independent Malaya. The Razak Report called for a national school system consisting of Malay, English, Chinese and Tamil-medium schools at the primary level, and Malay and English-medium schools at the secondary schools, with a uniform national curriculum regardless of the medium of instruction. Malay-medium schools would be known as "national", while other languages schools would be known as "national-type".


title: Education in Malaysia

text: In the early years following the 1957 Malaysian Independence Act, existing Chinese, Tamil and mission schools accepted government funding and were allowed to retain their medium of instructions on the condition that they adopt the national curriculum. Chinese secondary schools were given the options of accepting government funding and change into English national-type schools or remain Chinese and private without government funding. Most of the schools accepted the change, although a few rejected the offer and came to be known as Chinese Independent High Schools. Shortly after the change, some of the national-type schools reestablished their Chinese independent high school branches.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: In 1996, the Education Act of 1996 was passed to amend the Education Ordinance of 1956 and the Education Act of 1961. In 2004, the Ministry of Education was split into two; the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Higher Education. The latter handles matters regarding tertiary education. After a brief merging of the two departments, they again split in 2015. They are still split .


title: Education in Malaysia

text: In late December 2021, the Kuala Lumpur High Court ruled that Chinese and Tamil vernacular schools were consistent with Articles 152 (1) (a) and (b) of the Malaysian Constitution, rejecting a lawsuit by three NGOs Gabungan Pelajar Melayu Semenanjung (GPMS), the Islam Education Development Council (Mappim) and the Confederation of Malaysian Writers Association (Gapena) seeking to ban vernacular schools on the grounds they were inconsistent with the Malaysian Constitution. The High Court's ruling was welcomed by Malaysian Chinese Association secretary-general Datuk Chong Sin Woon, Deputy Education Minister and Malaysian Indian Congress member Datuk P. Kamalanathan, and Democratic Action Party assemblyman Ronnie Liu.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: During the British colonial period, Missionaries of Christian denominations, such as the Roman Catholic religious orders - particularly the Lasallian Brothers and the Sisters of the Holy Infant Jesus, Seventh-day Adventists, Anglicans, and Methodists established a series of "private missionary schools" which provided primary and secondary education in the English language. Almost all of these were single-sex schools. These schools were fee-paying and some had boarding schools attached to them. They were seen as "providing the best education" owing to the fact that they used "English as their medium of instruction". Although nowadays these missionary schools have fully assimilated into the Malay-medium national school system and most admit students regardless of gender and background, many of the schools remain single-sex and still bear their original names, such as the ones with the names of saints or words such as "Catholic", "Convent", "Advent" and "Methodist".


title: Education in Malaysia

text: By the 1960s, the government no longer charged fees at primary schools with a Malay-language medium; fees for Malay-medium primary schools were abolished by the Education Act of 1961 and "abolished with affect" by 1966. The missionary schools providing a curriculum in the English-language medium continued to charge fees which were "regulated by the government". By the 1980s, missionary schools were offering a curriculum - primary and secondary - in the Malay-language medium and thus no longer required to charge fees. However, donations from these school's alumni and their families are still paid today.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: During the 1970s, in accordance to the national language policy, the government began to change these English-medium primary and secondary national-type schools - Missionary schools - into Malay-medium national schools. The language change was made gradually starting from the first year in primary school, then the second year in the following year and so on. The change was completed by the end of 1982.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: At this period, the "mission school authorities baulked" at the government's request that they "surrender" their schools - land and buildings - to the government to be converted into fully aided national schools. Today, the various religious denominations still retain ownership of the "land and school buildings" of their missionary schools with the schools themselves operating as "only grant-in-aid national schools". They are not "fully aided" government schools. The church groups receive a "token monthly rent" from the government. The closure of a missionary school results in the "plots of land" being returned by the Education Ministry to their "owners" - the religious groups.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: In 2017, a number of "mission school educationists" had reportedly re-established their schools as "private with a local curriculum" stating that the schools had "long histories as private mission schools". The report stated that "St John’s International School is now a private-funded education centre in collaboration with the La Salle Brothers Malaysia. It has links with the Lasallian organisation which has had a footing in Malaysia since 1904, with premier St. John's Institution as a mission school, and also in more than 70 countries". The Sisters of the Holy Infant Jesus are also considering such re-structuring for their schools saying that they have "no intention to sell their land and buildings for redevelopment".


title: Education in Malaysia

text: The school year is divided into two semesters. The first semester begins in early January and ends in late May; the second semester begins in early June and ends in November.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: After completing their primary education in a Chinese national-type primary school, some students may choose to attend a Chinese Independent High School for their secondary education. Education in Chinese Independent High Schools usually last for six years, divided into two stages: three years in junior middle and three years in senior middle, similar to the secondary school systems in mainland China and Taiwan. Students are streamed into tracks like Science or Art/Commerce in the senior middle stage. At the end of each stage, students sit for the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC). A few schools offer an additional year in senior middle, catering to students taking the government's Sijil Tinggi Pelajaran Malaysia (STPM, equivalent to A-level). Chinese independent high schools use the same academic year as government schools. An academic year consists of two semesters: Semester 1 from January to May and Semester 2 from June to November, with examinations at the end of each semester. The overall academic performance of a student in an academic year determines his/her promotion to the next study year in the next academic year. Failing requires repeating the study year. Usually, failing to be promoted for two years in a row results in a dismissal. In contrast, students in government schools are automatically promoted regardless of academic performance.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: There are many students who attend international schools in Malaysia. Typically, students either are enrolled in international schools from either Year 7 onwards, as the public education system for secondary school students is entirely in Bahasa Malaysia, whereas most Universities and Colleges conduct their lectures in the English Language. Many of these parents also wish for their children to pursue an international education in the future, and entering an English Medium environment enables students to be prepared for that. International schools in Malaysia follow various curriculums, such as the Cambridge International Curriculum (UK), Australian Curriculum (Western Australia), Canadian Curriculum (Ontario) and the IB Curriculum (Switzerland). Many students from International Schools enter University at the age of 17 due to the age arrangements.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: There is no fixed rules on when a child needs to start preschool education but majority would start when the child turns 3 years old. Schooling can begin earlier, from 3–6, in kindergarten. Preschool education usually lasts for 2 years, before they proceed to primary school at age 7. There is no formal preschool curriculum except a formal mandatory training and certification for principals and teachers before they may operate a preschool. The training covers lessons on child psychology, teaching methodologies, and other related curricula on childcare and development. Preschool education is not compulsory.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: Preschool education is mainly provided by private for-profit preschools, though some are run by the government or religious groups. Some primary schools have attached preschool sections. Attendance in a preschool programme is not universal; while people living in urban areas are generally able to send their children to private kindergartens, few do in rural areas. Registered preschools are subjected to zoning regulations and must comply to other regulations such as health screening, fire hazard assessment and educational guidelines. Many preschools are located in high density residential areas, where normal residential units compliant to regulations are converted into the schools.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: Primary education in Malaysia begins at age seven and lasts for six years, referred to as Year ("Tahun") 1 to 6 (also known as Standard ("Darjah") 1 to 6). Year 1 to Year 3 are classified as Level One ("Tahap Satu") while Year 4 to Year 6 are considered as Level Two ("Tahap Dua"). Students are promoted to the next year regardless of their academic performance.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: From 1996 until 2000, the "Penilaian Tahap Satu" (PTS) or the Level One Evaluation was administered to Year 3 students. Excellence in this test allowed students to skip Year 4 and attend Year 5 instead. However, the test was removed from 2001 onwards due to concerns that parents and teachers were unduly pressuring students to pass the exam.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: Before progressing to secondary education, Year 6 pupils sit for the Primary School Achievement Test ("Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah", UPSR). The subjects tested are Malay comprehension, Malay writing, English comprehension, English writing, Science and Mathematics. In addition to the six subjects, Chinese comprehension and written Chinese are compulsory in Chinese schools, while Tamil comprehension and written Tamil are compulsory in Tamil schools.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: Malay and English are compulsory subjects in all schools. All schools use the same syllabus for non-language subjects regardless of the medium of instruction. The teaching of the Chinese language is compulsory in SJK(C), and Tamil language is compulsory in SJK(T). Additionally, a National School must provide the teaching of Chinese or Tamil language, as well as indigenous languages wherever practical, if the parents of at least 15 pupils in the school request that the particular language be taught.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: In January 2003, a mixed medium of instruction was introduced so that students would learn Science and Mathematics in English. Due to pressure from the Chinese community, SJK(C) teach Science and Mathematics in both English and Chinese. However, the government reversed the policy of teaching Science and Mathematics in English in July 2009, and previous languages of instruction will be reintroduced in stages from 2012.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: By degree of government funding, National Schools are government-owned and operated, while National-type Schools are mostly government-aided, though some are government-owned. In government-aided National-type Schools, the government is responsible for funding the school operations, teachers' training and salary, and setting the school curriculum, while the school buildings and assets belong to the local ethnic communities, which elect a board of directors for each school to safeguard the school properties. Between 1995 and 2000, the Seventh Malaysia Plan allocation for primary education development allocated 96.5% to National Schools which had 75% of total enrolment. Chinese National-type Schools (21% enrolment) received 2.4% of the allocation while Tamil National-type Schools (3.6% enrolment) received 1% of the allocation.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: Previously, there were also other types of National-type Schools. The English National-type Schools were assimilated to become National Schools as a result of decolonisation. Others, such as those for Telugu and Punjabi were closed due to the dwindling number of students and assimilation to Tamil dominance. The role of promoting these two languages and culture are currently fulfilled by some Gurdwaras (Sikh temples) and Telugu based organisations.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: The division of public education at the primary level into National and National-type Schools has been criticised for allegedly creating racial polarisation at an early age. To address the problem, attempts have been made to establish "Sekolah Wawasan" ("vision schools"). Under the concept, three schools (typically one SK, one SJK(C) and one SJK(T)) would share the same school compound and facilities while maintaining different school administrations, ostensibly to encourage closer interaction. However, this was met with objections from most of the Chinese and Indian communities as they believe this will restrict the use of their mother tongue in schools.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: Public secondary education in Malaysia is provided by National Secondary Schools ("Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan", "SMK"). National Secondary Schools use Malay as the main medium of instruction because Malay language is the National language of Malaysia while English is a compulsory subject in all schools. Since 2003, Science and Mathematics had been taught in English, however in 2009 the government decided to revert to use Malay starting in year 2012.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: As in primary schools, a National Secondary School must provide teaching of Chinese and Tamil languages, as well as indigenous languages wherever practical, on request of parents of at least 15 pupils in the school. In addition, foreign languages such as Arabic or Japanese may be taught at certain schools.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: Secondary education lasts for five years, referred to as Form ("Tingkatan") 1 to 5. Form 1 to Form 3 are known as Lower Secondary ("Menengah Rendah"), while Form 4 and 5 are known as Upper Secondary ("Menengah Atas"). Most students who had completed primary education are admitted to Form 1. Students from national-type primary schools have the additional requirement to obtain a minimum D grade for the Malay subjects in UPSR, failing which they will have to attend a year-long transition class, commonly called "Remove" ("Kelas/Tingkatan Peralihan"), before proceeding to Form 1. As in primary schools, students are promoted to the next year regardless of their academic performance.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: Co-curricular activities are compulsory at the secondary level, where all students must participate in at least 2 activities for most states, and 3 activities for the Sarawak region. There are many co-curricular activities offered at the secondary level, varying at each school and each student is judged based in these areas. Competitions and performances are regularly organised. Co-curricular activities are often categorised under the following: Uniformed Groups, Performing Arts, Clubs & Societies, Sports & Games. Student may also participate in more than 2 co-curricular activities.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: At the end of Form 3, students performance is determined by PBS. Previously, the "Pentaksiran Tingkatan 3" (PT3) or Form Three Assessment is taken by students until the government abolished the exam in 2022.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: At the end of Form 5, students are required to take the "Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia" (SPM) or Malaysian Certificate of Education examination, before graduating from secondary school. The SPM was based on the old British School Certificate examination before it became General Certificate of Education O Levels examination, which became the GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education). As of 2006, students are given a GCE 'O' Level grade for their English paper in addition to the normal English SPM paper. (Previously, this was reported on result slips as a separate result labelled 1119, which meant students received two grades for their English papers.) This separate grade is given based on the marks of the essay-writing component of the English paper. The essay section of the English paper is remarked under the supervision of officials from the British O Levels examination. Although not part of their final certificates, the O Level grade is included on their results slip.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: Shortly after the release of the 2005 SPM results in March 2006, the Education Ministry announced it was considering reforming the SPM system due to what was perceived as over-emphasis on As. Local educators appeared responsive to the suggestion, with one professor at the University of Malaya deploring university students who could not write letters, debate, or understand footnoting. He complained that "They don't understand what I am saying. I cannot communicate with them." He claimed that "Before 1957 (the year of independence), school heroes were not those with 8As or 9As, they were the great debaters, those good in drama, in sport, and those leading the Scouts and Girl Guides." A former Education Director-General, Murad Mohd Noor, agreed, saying that "The rat race now begins at Standard 6 with the UPSR, with the competition resulting in parents forcing their children to attend private tuition." He also expressed dismay at the prevalence of students taking 15 or 16 subjects for the SPM, calling it "unnecessary".


title: Education in Malaysia

text: A subset of the public secondary schools are known as National-type Secondary Schools ("Sekolah Menengah Jenis Kebangsaan", SMJK). At Malayan Independence (1957), it was decided that secondary education would be provided in Malay-medium National Secondary Schools and English-medium National-type Secondary Schools. Fee paying, English-medium schools owned and administered by missionaries/religious bodies were offered government aid provided that they adopted the national curriculum. Secondary schools using other languages as medium of instruction, most of them Chinese schools, were offered government aid on the condition that they convert into English-medium schools. In the 1970s, as the government began to abolish English-medium education in public schools, all National-type Secondary School were gradually converted into Malay-medium schools. The term "National-type Secondary School" is not present in the Education Act of 1996, which blurred the distinction between SMK and SMJK. However, Chinese educational groups are unwelcoming of the new development and continue to push for the distinction to be made between the 78 formerly Chinese-medium schools and other secondary schools. The schools continue to have "SMJK" on the school signboards and boards of directors continue to manage the school properties, as opposed to schools that are directly managed by the government. Most former Chinese-medium SMJK continue to have a majority Chinese student and teacher population, usually only accept students from Chinese-medium primary schools, have Chinese language as a compulsory subject and have bilingual (Malay and Chinese) school announcements.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: Other types of government or government-aided secondary schools include Religious Secondary School ("Sekolah Menengah Agama"), Technical Schools (Sekolah Menengah Teknik), Fully Residential Schools and MARA Junior Science College (Maktab Rendah Sains MARA).


title: Education in Malaysia

text: Within the national public school system are a few magnet type/charter public high schools. Admissions are very selective, reserved for students who demonstrate outstanding academic achievement and potential at the elementary level, Year/Standard 1 through 6. These schools are either full-time day or boarding schools ('asrama penuh'). Examples of these schools are Sekolah Tuanku Abdul Rahman, Royal Military College (Malaysia) and Penang Free School.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: Residential schools or Sekolah Berasrama Penuh are also known as Science Schools. These schools used to cater mainly for Malay elites but have since expanded as schools for nurturing Malays who are outstanding academically or those displaying talents in sports and leadership. The schools are modelled after British Boarding School.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: After the SPM, students from public secondary school would have a choice of either studying Form 6 or the matriculation (pre-university). If they are accepted to continue studying in Form 6, they will also take the Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (which is usually abbreviated as STPM) or Malaysian Higher School Certificate examination (its British equivalent is the General Certificate of Education A Level examination or internationally, the Higher School Certificate). STPM is regulated by the Malaysian Examinations Council. Although it is generally taken by those desiring to attend public universities in Malaysia, it is internationally recognised and may also be used, though rarely required, to enter private local universities for undergraduate courses.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: Additionally all students may apply for admission to matriculation. This matriculation is a one or two-year programme run by the Ministry of Education. Previously, it was a one-year programme, but beginning 2006, 30% of all matriculation students were offered two-year programmes.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: Not all applicants for matriculation are admitted and the selection criteria are not publicly declared, which has led to speculation that any criteria existing may not be adhered to. A race-based quota is applied on the admission process, with 90% of the places being reserved for the Bumiputeras, and the other 10% for the non-Bumiputeras.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: Having been introduced after the abolishment of a racial-quota-based admission into universities, the matriculation programme continues the role of its predecessor, albeit in modified form. The matriculation programme adopts a semester basis examination (two semesters in a year). Similarly, STPM involves three-term examinations (one final examination every term), two resit examinations at the end of the final term (if desired by students), as well as coursework depending on each subject (except for General Studies where coursework is mandatory) covering all one and a half years' syllabus.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: The Centre for Foundation Studies in Science, University of Malaya, offers two programmes only for Bumiputera students: i) The Science Program, a one-year course under the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Higher Education. After completing the program, the students are placed into various science-based courses in local universities through the meritocracy system. ii) The Special Preparatory Program to Enter the Japanese Universities, a two-year intensive programme under the Look East Policy Division of the Public Service Department of Malaysia in co-operation with the Japanese Government.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: Some students undertake their pre-university studies in private colleges. They may opt for programmes such as the British A Level programme, the Canadian matriculation programme or the equivalent of other national systems – namely the Australian NSW Board of Studies Higher School Certificate and the American High School Diploma with AP subjects. More recently, the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme is becoming more popular as a pre-university option.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: The Government has claimed that admission to universities are purely meritocracy based and do not have plans to change the system.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: Before the introduction of the matriculation system, students aiming to enter public universities had to complete an additional 18 months of secondary schooling in Form 6 and sit the Malaysian Higher School Certificate ("Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia", STPM); equivalent to the British Advanced or A Level.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: Since the introduction of the matriculation programme as an alternative to STPM in 1999, students who completed the 12-month programme in matriculation colleges (kolej matrikulasi in Malay) can enrol in local universities. However, in the matriculation system, only 10% of the places are open to non-Bumiputra students. Excellence in these examinations does not guarantee a place in a public university. The selection criteria are largely opaque as no strictly enforced defined guidelines exist.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: The classification of tertiary education in Malaysia is organised upon the Malaysian Qualifications Framework (MQF) which seeks to set up a unified system of post secondary qualifications offered on a national basis in the vocational and higher education sectors.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: From 2004 to 2013, the government formed the Ministry of Higher Education to oversee tertiary education in Malaysia.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: The government announced a reduction of reliance of racial quotas in 2002, instead leaning more towards meritocracy. Before 2004, all lecturers in public tertiary institutions were required to have some post-graduate award as a qualification. In October 2004, this requirement was removed and the Higher Education Ministry announced that industry professionals who added value to a course could apply for lecturing positions directly to universities even if they did not have postgraduate qualifications. To head off possible allegations that the universities faced a shortage of lecturers, Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Fu Ah Kiow said "This is not because we are facing a shortage of lecturers, but because this move will add value to our courses and enhance the name of our universities. Let's say Bill Gates and Steven Spielberg, both [undergraduates but] well known and outstanding in their fields, want to be teaching professors. Of course, we would be more than happy to take them in." He went on to offer as an example the field of architecture whereby well-known architects recognised for their talents do not have master's degrees.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: There are a number of public universities established in Malaysia. The academic independence of public universities' faculty has been questioned. Critics like Bakri Musa cite examples such as a scientist who was reprimanded by Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak for "publishing studies on air pollution" and a professor of mathematics at the National University of Malaysia who was reproved for criticising the government policy of teaching mathematics and science in English at the primary and secondary levels.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: Students have the option of enrolling in private tertiary institutions after secondary studies. Private universities are gaining a reputation for international quality education and students from all over the world attend them. Many of these institutions offer courses in co-operation with a foreign institute or university — especially in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia — allowing students to spend a portion of their course abroad as well as getting overseas qualifications. One such example is Tunku Abdul Rahman University College which partnered with Sheffield Hallam University and Coventry University.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: Many private colleges offer programmes whereby the student does part of his degree course here and part of it in the other institution; this is called "twinning". The nature of these programs is diverse and ranges from the full "twinning" program where all credits and transcripts are transferable and admission is automatic to programs where the local institution offers an "associate degree" which is accepted at the discretion of the partnering university. In the latter case, acceptance of transcripts and credits is at the discretion of the partner. Some of them are branch campuses of these foreign institutions. In addition, four reputable international universities have set up their branch campuses in Malaysia since 1998. A branch can be seen as an 'offshore campus' of the foreign university, which offers the same courses and awards as the main campus. Local and international students can acquire these identical foreign qualifications in Malaysia at a lower fee. Some of the foreign university branch campuses in Malaysia are:


title: Education in Malaysia

text: The net outflow of academics from Malaysia led to a "brain gain" scheme by then (1995) Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. The scheme set a target of attracting 5,000 talents annually. In 2004, Science, Technology and Innovation Minister, Datuk Dr Jamaluddin Jarjis in a parliamentary reply stated that the scheme attracted 94 scientists (24 Malaysians) in pharmacology, medicine, semi-conductor technology and engineering from abroad between 1995 and 2000. At the time of his reply, only one was remaining in Malaysia.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: Postgraduate degrees such as the Master of Business Administration (MBA) and the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) are becoming popular and are offered by public and private universities.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: All public and most private universities in Malaysia offer Master of Science degrees either through coursework or research and Doctor of Philosophy degrees through research.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: Polytechnics in Malaysia provide courses for bachelor's degree, Advanced Diploma, Diploma and Special Skills Certificate.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: A system of Islamic religious schools exists in Malaysia. Primary schools are called "Sekolah Rendah Agama" (SRA), while secondary schools are called "Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Agama" (SMKA). Another group of religious schools are Sekolah Agama Bantuan Kerajaan (SABK). SABK includes secondary schools and may also include a type of primary schools called community religious schools or "sekolah agama rakyat" (SAR).


title: Education in Malaysia

text: The SAR schools teach Muslim students subjects related to Islam such as early Islamic history, Arabic language and Fiqh. It is not compulsory though some states such as Johor make it mandatory for all Muslim children aged six to twelve to attend the schools as a complement to the mandatory primary education. In the final year, students will sit an examination for graduation. Most SAR are funded by respective states and managed by states' religious authority. Previously, former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohammad suggested to the government that the SARs should be closed down and integrated into the national schools. However, his proposal was met with resistance and later, the matter was left to die quietly. Such schools still exist in Malaysia, but are generally no longer the only part of a child's education in urban areas. Students in rural parts of the country do still attend these schools. Some of the academic results published by these schools are accepted by mainline universities by taking Malaysia High Certificate of Religious Study (Sijil Tinggi Agama Malaysia, abbreviated as STAM), and many of these students continue their education in locations such as Pakistan or Egypt. Some of their alumni include (son of PAS spiritual leader Nik Aziz). SAR may become part of SABK formed in 2005.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: Some parents also opt to send their children for religious classes after secular classes. Sunday schools and after school classes at the mosque are various options available. In many normal schools, there are also religious classes called Kelas Aliran Agama.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: After receiving primary education in national-type primary schools, some students from SJK(C) may choose to study in a Chinese Independent High School (Chinese: ). Chinese independent high schools are funded by the Malaysian Chinese public, with UCSCAM (United Chinese School Committees' Association of Malaysia, also known as "Dong Zong" after its Chinese acronym) as the overall co-ordination body. Students in Chinese independent high schools study in three junior middle levels and three senior middle levels; each level takes one year. Like the students in public secondary schools, students in Chinese independent high schools are put into several streams like Science or Art/Commerce in the senior middle levels. However, some schools recently provided unique streams like Electrical Engineering, Food and Beverage Studies or Arts Design. The medium of instruction in Chinese independent high schools is Mandarin and uses simplified Chinese characters in writing.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: Students in Chinese independent high schools take standardised tests known as the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) at the end of Junior Middle 3 and Senior Middle 3. UEC has been run by UCSCAM since 1975 and has won ISO9001 certification from Malaysia, China, UK, Japan and so on. The UEC is available in three levels: Vocational Unified Exam (UEC-V), UEC Junior Middle Level (UEC-JML/JUEC) and Senior Middle Level (UEC-SML/SUEC). The syllabus and examinations for the UEC-V and UEC-JML are only available in the Chinese language. The UEC-SML has questions for mathematics, sciences (biology, chemistry and physics), bookkeeping, accounting and commerce in both Chinese and English.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: The government of Malaysia does not recognise the UEC-SML currently, hence the UEC holders are not accepted into public universities in Malaysia. UEC-SML is however, accepted by most private universities and colleges in Malaysia. In addition, UEC-SML is recognised as an entrance qualification in many tertiary educational institutions internationally, including those in The United States, the United Kingdom, Taiwan, Japan, Mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and some European countries.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: After the General Election 2018 in Malaysia, the incoming Pakatan Harapan government had promised for UEC to be recognised for entrance into public universities and civil service in Malaysia. It is a matter that is still under consideration and has not been implemented.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: According to the UCSCAM, it was the British colonial policy (1786–1957) to allow vernacular language schools to exist and develop, along with Sekolah Pondok (Malays) and Sekolah Tamil (Indians). This was part of the British strategy of "dividing and rule". For those who are willing to attend English schools, they will gain better opportunities in employment than any other schools, sometimes at the expense of their own racial/ethnic and religious root(s). Nevertheless, the development of Chinese language education thrived due to the conformity to the divide and rule policy. Before Malaysia gained independence, the Chinese had 1300 primary schools, nearly 100 high schools, and even a tertiary institution, Nanyang University, built without the financial support of the government. The report of Dong Zong claimed that the main reason for many Chinese parents sending their children to Chinese schools was that they generally hoped their children would retain their Chinese identity, with love and awareness of the nation of Malaysia, love of their own culture and traditions, ethnic pride, and most importantly being aware of their ethnic roots.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: The UCSCAM believed that the government of Malaysia had a "final goal" (referring to the Razak Report) to eradicate the Chinese schools and Tamil schools. The report claimed that the government of Malaysia's culture and language education policy, over the past 50 years was, to not give up implementation of the "final goal": a final "national school" with the Malay language (National language) as the main medium of instruction. The language of other ethnic groups, namely Chinese and Tamil, thus could only serve as a foreign language. The reason given by the government was that the Chinese and Tamil primary schools were the root cause of disunity of this country. To achieve "national unity", all other non-national schools should be restricted, and finally merged with the national school.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: The standpoint of UCSCAM is that only the implementation of a multilingual school policy befits Malaysia's multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-linguistic and multi-religious society. Dong Jiao Zong's distinctive position for this protest has remained unchanged over the last 50 years.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: International schools use curricula of foreign countries or international curricula such as International Baccalaureate, Edexcel or Cambridge International Examinations. See for a listing.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: Present-day Malaysia introduced Western style school uniforms () in the late 19th century during the British colonial era. Today, school uniforms are almost universal in the public and private school systems.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: A common version of Malaysian school uniform is of public schools. The dress code for males is the most standardised while female uniforms are more varied based on the religion of students and the type of schools. Male students are required to wear a collared shirt with a pair of shorts or long pants. Female students may wear a knee-length pinafore and a collared shirt, a knee-length skirt and a collared shirt, or a "baju kurung" consisting of a top and a long skirt with an optional hijab (tudung) for Muslim students. White socks and shoes of black or white are almost universally required for students, while ties are included in certain dress codes. Prefects, Form Six students (varies in some school) and students with other additional school duties may wear uniforms of different colours; colours may differ between primary and secondary schools.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: Education in Malaysia is monitored by the federal government Ministry of Education. In July 2006, Higher Education Deputy Minister Datuk Ong Tee Keat stated that a review of the controversial Universities and University Colleges Act 1971 will be held among Malaysian MPs. The ruling political alliance is composed of ethnically based parties and one of the concessions allowed by the controlling Malay party is to allow the Chinese and Indian parties to start colleges.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: In 2006, the National Education Blueprint 2006–10 was released. The Blueprint set a number of goals, such as establishing a National Pre-School Curriculum, setting up 100 new classes for students with special needs, increasing the percentage of single-session schools to 90% for primary schools and 70% for secondary schools, and decreasing class sizes from 31 to 30 students in primary schools and from 32 to 30 in secondary schools by the year 2010. The Blueprint also provided a number of statistics concerning weaknesses in education. According to the Blueprint, 10% of primary schools and 1.4% of secondary schools do not have a 24-hour electricity supply, 20% and 3.4% respectively do not have a public water supply, and 78% and 42% are over 30 years old and require refurbishing. It was also stated that 4.4% of primary students and 0.8% of secondary students had not mastered the "3Ms" (reading, writing and arithmetic). The drop-out rate for secondary schools was given as 9.3% in urban areas and 16.7% in rural areas.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: The Blueprint also aimed to address the problem of racial polarisation in schools. Under the Blueprint, schools will hold seminars on the Constitution of Malaysia, motivational camps to increase cultural awareness, food festivals to highlight different ethnic cooking styles, and essay competitions on different cultural traditions. Mandarin and Tamil language classes will be held in national schools, beginning with a pilot project in 220 schools in 2007.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: The Blueprint has been subject to some criticism. Academic Khoo Kay Kim has criticised the plan, saying:


title: Education in Malaysia

text: In 2013, the National Education Blueprint was released. It covers the education of Malaysian starting from Preschool until Post-Secondary.The approach of the blueprint was ground-breaking as it uses multiple perspectives to evaluate and assess the performance of Malaysia's education system. This included the World Bank, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and six local universities. The Ministries also worked with other governmental agencies to ensure alignment with other policies related to education. Furthermore, the Ministry engaged also with the people in a new scale; Over 55000 Ministry officials, teachers, school leaders, parents, students, and members of public across Malaysia via interviews, focus groups, surveys, National Dialogue town halls, Open Days and round table discussions. More than 200 memorandums and 3000 articles and blog post were submitted by the Ministry.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: The blueprint highlights aspirations to ensure universal access and full enrolment of all children from preschool through to upper secondary school level by 2020; aspirations for Malaysia to be in the top third of countries in terms of performance in international assessments, as measured by outcomes in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) within 15 years, aspires to halve the current urban-rural, socio-economic and gender achievement gaps by 2020; aspirations to create a system whereby students have opportunities to build shared experiences and aspirations that form the foundation for unity, aspires to further maximise student outcomes within current budget levels.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: It also has identified 11 shifts that will need to occur to deliver the step change in outcomes envisioned by Malaysians. Each shift is to address at least one of the five system outcomes of access, quality, equity, unity and efficiency. Among the many steps to be taken, it is part of the plan to increase compulsory schooling from six to 11 years, starting at the age of six years supported by targeted retention programmes, launch the Secondary School Standard Curriculum or Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Menengah (KSSM) and revised Primary School Standard Curriculum or Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Rendah (KSSR) in 2017 to embed a balanced set of knowledge and skills such as creative thinking, innovation, problem-solving and leadership, lay out clear learning standards so that students and parents understand the progress expected within each year of schooling, revamp the national examination and school-based assessments in stages, whereby by 2016 at least 40 per cent of questions in Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) and 50 per cent in Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) are higher-order thinking questions and by the end of 2013, is to build academic and career counselling services into the secondary school timetable to help students make better informed choices about the various education pathways on offer.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: By 2025, it is to ensure that Orang Asli students, other minority groups and students with physical or learning disabilities go to schools with the facilities and equipment needed to create a conductive and supportive learning environment, from 2016, is to ensure that English is made a compulsory subject to pass for SPM, by 2025, is to ensure that every student is encouraged to learn an additional language in the move to equip them well for entering the workforce in a globalising world, will focus on building up its cadre of Chinese, Tamil and Arabic language teachers to ensure that the supply of teachers matches student demand, besides expanding the provision of other important languages such as Spanish, French and Japanese, from 2013, is to ensure that the entry bar for teachers is raised to be amongst the top 30 per cent of graduates, from 2013, is to ensure that teachers enjoy a reduced administrative burden so that they can focus the majority of their time on their core function of teaching, with some administrative functions moved to a centralised service centre or to a dedicated administrative teacher at the school level, by 2015, is to ensure that all schools meet basic infrastructure requirements, starting with Sabah and Sarawak, is to ensure that the Trust School model is expanded to 500 schools by 2025, including by alumni groups and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) as potential sponsors, will publish an annual report on the progress made against each initiative outlined in the blueprint, will undertake a stock-take at key milestones in the blueprint journey in 2015, 2020 and 2025.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: The history of issues in Malaysian education started since the British government period: the Barnes Report in 1951 to unite all races with the colonial language. The later Razak Report was made to replace the unsuccessful Barnes Report, and the system remains until today.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: The issue of language and schools is a key issue for many political groups in Malaysia. However, under the Razak Report, primary schools using the Chinese and Tamil language as medium of instruction are retained. Up until 1981 in Peninsular Malaysia (and some years later in Sabah and Sarawak), there were English-medium schools, set up by the former colonial government and Christian missionaries. Following the implementation of the 1967 National Language Act which stipulated the conversion of all English-medium schools to Malay-medium schools; as well with severe race riots in Kuala Lumpur that occurred later in May 1969, English-medium schools were phased out from January 1970; by 1982 these became Malay-medium schools ("national schools").


title: Education in Malaysia

text: The existence of national-type schools is used by non-Malays components of the ruling Barisan Nasional to indicate that their culture and identity have not been infringed upon by the Malay people. Dong Jiao Zhong (the association of Chinese school boards and teachers) and other Chinese education organisations took on the role of safeguarding Chinese education in the country and are opposed to Malay replacing Chinese as medium of instruction in Chinese schools. They shape much of the views of the Chinese educated community, which is a key electoral constituency.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: In 2002, the government announced that from 2003 onwards, the teaching of Science and Mathematics would be done in English, to ensure that Malaysia would not be left behind in a world that was rapidly becoming globalised. This paved the way for the establishment of mixed-medium education. However, the policy was heavily criticised by Malay linguists and activists, fearing that the policy might erode the usage of Malay language in science and mathematics, which led to a massive rally in Kuala Lumpur on 7 March 2009. Chinese education groups opposed the policy as well, fearing that it might erode the usage of Chinese as the medium of instruction in Chinese schools. The government announced in 2009 that this policy will be reversed in 2012: the teaching of both subjects would revert to Malay.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: Due to the lack of Chinese and Indian students attending national schools, coupled with the increasing number of Malay students attending Chinese and Indian national-type schools, the government announced in April 2005 that all national schools will begin teaching Chinese and Tamil to attract more students, not as mother tongue courses but as elective courses.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: In 2004 the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) representative Dr. Richard Leete stated that Malaysia's ranking in the UNDP gender index was not "as high as it should be". Former Higher Education Minister Datuk Dr Shafie Salleh replied that it was not unique to Malaysia. His quoted statistics revealed that there was a 2:1 ratio of boys to girls in polytechnics and at public higher learning institutions. In virtually all developed countries females and males enter university in approximately equal ratios. Thus, the 2:1 ratio in Malaysia is seen as rather peculiar when placed in a global context.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: Malaysian polytechnics and community colleges are not degree-producing institutions and none have post-graduate programmes. Most are vocational or technical institutions. This imbalance is corrected once the respective genders leave the education system.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: In 1973, the Malaysian government implemented an affirmative action program, setting a quota of 55% of university places for Bumiputeras and the remaining 45% for Chinese and Indian students. The university quota system created considerable unhappiness among the Chinese and Indians.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: In 2000, the quota for Bumiputera is raised to 90% and limited the intake of non-Bumiputera such as Indian and Chinese to 10%.


title: Education in Malaysia

text: In 2010, the Indian community was shocked at the low 2% to 3% intake of Indian students into public universities. Indians are faring badly under the quota system used for university intake. Under the meritocratic system, about 5% to 10% of the students were Indians.


title: Super Mario 3D All-Stars

text: Super Mario 3D All-Stars is a 2020 compilation of platform games for the Nintendo Switch. It commemorates the 35th anniversary of Nintendo's "Super Mario" franchise, with high-definition ports of "Super Mario 64" (1996), "Super Mario Sunshine" (2002), and "Super Mario Galaxy" (2007).


title: Super Mario 3D All-Stars

text: The compilation was released on September 18, 2020 and was available until March 31, 2021, when it was discontinued and removed from the Nintendo eShop. It received positive reviews for its games, technical improvements, and controls, but it was criticized for its presentation, lack of additional content, time-limited release, and the absence of "Super Mario Galaxy 2" (2010). As of March 2021, "Super Mario 3D All-Stars" had sold more than 9 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best selling video games of 2020.


title: Super Mario 3D All-Stars

text: "Super Mario 3D All-Stars" compiles high-definition ports of the first three 3D platform games in the "Super Mario" series: "Super Mario 64" (1996), "Super Mario Sunshine" (2002), and "Super Mario Galaxy" (2007). The version of "Super Mario 64" is the "Shindō" version released only in Japan in July 1997, which added bug fixes and gameplay alterations. Rumble support was also based from this version as well.


title: Super Mario 3D All-Stars

text: The games in the collection utilize emulation. They support Joy-Con controls with rumble function, and are displayed at higher resolutions, such as "Sunshine" running in a . Both "Sunshine" and "Galaxy" are displayed in 1080p in TV Mode and 720p in Handheld Mode, while "64" is displayed in 720p in both modes in a . A patch released in November 2020 added camera options for all three games and control options for F.L.U.D.D. in "Sunshine".


title: Super Mario 3D All-Stars

text: "Sunshine" did not initially natively support the GameCube controller on the Nintendo Switch. When originally released on the GameCube, "Sunshine" used the GameCube controller's analog triggers (which Switch controllers do not have) to regulate F.L.U.D.D.'s water pressure. For the collection, F.L.U.D.D. is controlled with the right bumper for precision aiming while standing still, while using the right trigger "is akin to pulling the GameCube's analog trigger to about the three-quarters mark". GameCube controller support for "Sunshine" was added in November 2020. A further patch released in November 2021 enabled "Super Mario 64" to be played with the Nintendo 64 wireless controller available to Nintendo Switch Online subscribers.


title: Super Mario 3D All-Stars

text: "Galaxy" features optional Joy-Con controls that imitate the motion-controlled setup of the Wii Remote and Nunchuk, with Mario's spin ability remapped to the Y button. In handheld mode, players can use the touchscreen in lieu of the pointer. To play "Galaxy" cooperative gameplay mode in handheld mode, a secondary Joy-Con is needed.


title: Super Mario 3D All-Stars

text: The compilation also features a music player mode, which compiles the entire original soundtracks of all three games—a total of 175 tracks. The music can be played when the screen is turned off.


title: Super Mario 3D All-Stars

text: "Super Mario 3D All-Stars" was developed and published by Nintendo to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the original "Super Mario Bros." (1985). According to "Eurogamer", Nintendo referred to the compilation as "Super Mario All-Stars 2" internally. Nintendo's goal was to retain the included games' "original design and spirit" with updates to the resolutions and controls. According to Kenta Motokura, the project's producer, the developers interviewed the games' original staff to learn of each's importance. The "Super Mario Sunshine" port in the collection uses GameCube emulation technology developed by Nintendo European Research & Development (NERD), who further collaborated with the "3D All-Stars" development team on several new features for the game and upgraded its full motion videos to HD using their own deep learning engine. NERD also assisted with the "Super Mario Galaxy" port by providing graphics and audio emulation technologies.


title: Super Mario 3D All-Stars

text: The collection was first reported by "Video Games Chronicle" in March 2020, and corroborated by other outlets. According to these reports, Nintendo planned to announce it during a "Mario"-themed presentation at E3 2020, but this was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nintendo would announce the collection in a special Nintendo Direct for the 35th anniversary on September 3, 2020, along with a release date of September 18, 2020. It was available to purchase for a limited time, both physically and digitally until March 31, 2021. Doug Bowser, the president of Nintendo of America, said that the game's limited availability was due to it being part of the celebration of the 35th anniversary, an approach the company does not plan on using widely for other releases.


title: Super Mario 3D All-Stars

text: According to the review aggregating website Metacritic, "Super Mario 3D All-Stars" received "generally favorable reviews". Critics generally agreed that the games themselves remained enjoyable, but were divided over the presentation, which received criticism for its simplistic nature and lack of additional features, its limited time release, and the absence of "Super Mario Galaxy 2" (2010).


title: Super Mario 3D All-Stars

text: Ian Walker from "Kotaku" said the port of "64" "hasn't introduced any obviously unfortunate consequences" and even fixed some "occasional performance dips" from the original, and that the controls for the game worked well on the Switch. For "Sunshine", he felt the adjusted controls would affect anyone playing who had muscle memory from the original and that the visuals stuttered somewhat late in the game. For "Galaxy", Walker was thankful some of the motion-based controls were remapped to controller buttons but added some of the areas that still required the motion controls were still problematic as they were on the Wii.


title: Super Mario 3D All-Stars

text: "IGN"s Zachary Ryan was "a little bit disappointed in the lack of effort Nintendo has put into" the collection, when compared to the "major overhauls" done for the games in "Super Mario All-Stars", and noted the use of emulation to present the three games helped explain "a lot about the lack of upgrades" in each. For "64", Ryan felt the upscaling made the game look the nicest it ever had, and called the controls "still super tight" and "right at home on a Pro Controller or Joy-Con", despite the x-axis camera controls being inverted (a later patch would make this optional). He did wish Nintendo had added "some quality-of-life upgrades", feeling players experiencing the game for the first time "might find it somewhat inaccessible". "Sunshine" was still a fantastic looking game and commended the controls still remaining fluid, though Ryan experienced some slowdown in certain moments. Finally, Ryan felt upscaling "Galaxy" made it "a fully realized version" of the game and praised the updated control options, adding the handheld mode configuration, while "not the most ideal way to play", still worked.


title: Super Mario 3D All-Stars

text: By September 7, pre-orders for "Super Mario 3D All-Stars" had made it the second-bestselling game of 2020 on Amazon in the United States, behind "". Scalpers resold pre-orders on websites such as eBay, going as high as . Base.com, an online retailer in the United Kingdom, was forced to cancel all of their customer's pre-orders because their allocation of physical games was not enough to fulfil pre-orders. They added that Nintendo and their UK distributors were "unable to give... any reassurance" that more copies would be made available to them through the on-sale period.


title: Super Mario 3D All-Stars

text: In its first week of release, "Super Mario 3D All-Stars" was the best-selling game in the UK, and was the third-largest game launch of 2020 and the fifth-fastest selling Switch game in the country. In Japan, the game sold over 210,000 physical copies within the first three days of its release. In the United States, "Super Mario 3D All-Stars" was the second-best selling game of September behind "Marvel's Avengers", and had become the 10th best-selling game of 2020. The collection was also the best-selling game in September for Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. , "Super Mario 3D All-Stars" has sold over 9.01 million units worldwide. In March 2021, ahead of its delisting, the game's physical sales in the United Kingdom spiked around 267%.


title: The Two Fridas

text: The Two Fridas ("Las dos Fridas" in Spanish) is an oil painting by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. The painting was the first large-scale work done by Kahlo and is considered one of her most notable paintings. It is a double self-portrait, depicting two versions of Kahlo seated together. One is wearing a white European-style Victorian dress while the other is wearing a traditional Tehuana dress. The painting is housed at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City.


title: The Two Fridas

text: Kahlo painted "The Two Fridas" in 1939, the same year she divorced artist Diego Rivera, although they remarried a year later. According to Kahlo's friend, Fernando Gamboa, the painting was inspired by two paintings that Kahlo saw earlier that year at the Louvre: Théodore Chassériau's "The Two Sisters" and the anonymous "Gabrielle d'Estrées and One of Her Sisters".


title: The Two Fridas

text: In January 1940, "The Two Fridas" was exhibited along with "The Wounded Table" at the International Surrealist Exhibition in Mexico City.


title: The Two Fridas

text: The painting remained in Kahlo's possession until it was acquired by the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (INBA) in 1947. The INBA transferred it to the Museo de Arte Moderno on December 28, 1966, where it is presently housed.


title: The Two Fridas

text: Some art historians have suggested that the two figures in the painting are a representation of Frida's dual heritage. Her father, Guillermo Kahlo, was German; while her mother, Matilde Calderon, was Mexican. Another interpretation is that the Tehuana Frida is the one who was adored by her husband Diego Rivera, while the European Frida is the one that was rejected by him. In Frida's own recollection, the image is of a memory of a childhood imaginary friend.


title: The Two Fridas

text: Both Fridas hold items in their lap; the Mexican Frida holds a small portrait of Diego Rivera, and the European Frida holds forceps. Blood spills onto the European Frida's white dress from a broken blood vessel that has been cut by the forceps. The blood vessel connects the two Fridas, winding its way from their hands through their hearts. The work alludes to Kahlo's life of constant pain and surgical procedures and the Aztec tradition of human sacrifice. Because this piece was completed by Kahlo shortly after her divorce, the European Frida is missing a piece of herself, her Diego.


title: The Two Fridas

text: Both Fridas show an open heart. The heart in the Mexican Frida is healthy whereas the heart of the European Frida is open and cut. An interpretation of this is that it not only shows two separate personalities but indicates the constant pain that Frida is going through. The tragic motor accident that left her bedridden and then with medical problems throughout her life is shown through the two figures; one is weak whilst the other is strong. Although the two figures appear separate, a vein connecting the two further symbolises that despite the differences in the two figures they both make up one Frida; together they make the self-portrait.


title: The Two Fridas

text: Hispanic studies professor Sarah M. Misemer suggests that Kahlo’s multi-racial representation seen in "The Two Fridas" reflects the impact that the colonial era had on racial demographics in Mexico. Additionally, Misemer argues that Kahlo’s representation of herself as a multi-racial individual serves as a cultural symbol for the Mexican nation.


title: The Two Fridas

text: Kahlo’s work has inspired the creation of cultural products. For example, the painting "The Two Fridas" inspired a play called "Las Dos Fridas" (1998) by Bárbara Córcega, , and Abraham Oceransky. In this play, two separate actresses play different versions of Kahlo named Espina (Thorn) and Flor (Flower). Although these characters have different names, they are supposed to be the same person. Espina wears a Tehuana outfit, like the indigenous representation of Kahlo seen in the painting, whereas Flor wears a suit from the 1940s. In the original play, Espina and Flor were played by two of its writers, Córcega and Farías.


title: The Two Fridas

text: The play begins with Flor asking Espina about Kahlo’s identity. Espina then explains different aspects of Kahlo’s identity, such as her gender and career. Historians argue that these different understandings of Kahlo’s identity that Espina and Flor carry suggest the multi-faceted nature of Kahlo’s own identity. This multifaceted nature of her identity is expanded through the set of the play; a sketch of a self-portrait of Kahlo is a prop on the stage. The play then moves to the two versions of Kahlo acting out various scenes from her own life, with an emphasis on her struggles in her marriage with Rivera, who had numerous affairs with other women during their marriage. Specifically, the play addresses the shame Kahlo feels as well as the denial she engages in regarding Rivera’s affairs. The play also highlights how Kahlo used her physical pain to manipulate Rivera into staying with her. Misemer’s studies suggest that Kahlo’s medical conditions and pain prevented Rivera from ending their relationship.


title: South African English

text: South African English (SAfrE, SAfrEng, SAE, en-ZA) is the set of English language dialects native to South Africans.


title: South African English

text: British settlers first arrived in the South African region in 1795, when they established a military holding operation at the Cape Colony. The goal of this first endeavour was to gain control of a key Cape sea route, not to establish a permanent settler colony. Full control of the colony was wrested from the Batavian Republic following the Battle of Blaauwberg in 1806. The first major influx of English speakers arrived in 1820. About 5,000 British settlers, mostly rural or working class, settled in the Eastern Cape. Though the British were a minority colonist group (the Dutch had been in the region since 1652, when traders from the Dutch East India Company developed an outpost), the Cape Colony governor, Lord Charles Somerset, declared English an official language in 1822. To spread the influence of English in the colony, officials began to recruit British schoolmasters and Scottish clergy to occupy positions in the education and church systems. Another group of English speakers arrived from Britain in the 1840s and 1850s, along with the Natal settlers. These individuals were largely "standard speakers" like retired military personnel and aristocrats. A third wave of English settlers arrived between 1875 and 1904, and brought with them a diverse variety of English dialects. These last two waves did not have as large an influence on South African English (SAE), for "the seeds of development were already sown in 1820". However, the Natal wave brought nostalgia for British customs and helped to define the idea of a "standard" variety that resembled Southern British English.


title: South African English

text: When the Union of South Africa was formed in 1910, English and Dutch were the official state languages, although Afrikaans effectively replaced Dutch in 1925. After 1994, these two languages along with nine other Southern Bantu languages achieved equal official status.


title: South African English

text: SAE is an extraterritorial (ET) variety of English, or a language variety that has been transported outside its mainland home. More specifically, SAE is a Southern hemisphere ET originating from later English colonisation in the 18th and 19th centuries (Zimbabwean, Australian, and New Zealand English are also Southern hemisphere ET varieties). SAE resembles British English more closely than it does American English due to the close ties that South African colonies maintained with the mainland in the 19th and 20th centuries. However, with the increasing influence of American pop-culture around the world via modes of contact like television, American English has become more familiar in South Africa. Indeed, some American lexical items are becoming alternatives to comparable British terms.


title: South African English

text: Black South African English, or BSAE, is spoken by individuals whose first language is an indigenous African tongue. BSAE is considered a "new" English because it has emerged through the education system among second-language speakers in places where English is not the majority language. At least two sociolinguistic variants have been definitively studied on a post-creole continuum for the second-language Black South African English spoken by most Black South Africans: a high-end, prestigious "acrolect" and a more middle-ranging, mainstream "mesolect". The "basilect" variety is less similar to the colonial language (natively-spoken English), while the "mesolect" is somewhat more so. Historically, BSAE has been considered a "non-standard" variety of English, inappropriate for formal contexts and influenced by indigenous African languages.


title: South African English

text: According to the Central Statistical Services, about 7 million black people spoke English in South Africa. BSAE originated in the South African school system, when the 1953 Bantu Education Act mandated the use of native African languages in the classroom. When this law was established, most of the native English-speaking teachers were removed from schools. This limited the exposure that black students received to standard varieties of English. As a result, the English spoken in black schools developed distinctive patterns of pronunciation and syntax, leading to the formation of BSAE. Some of these characteristic features can be linked to the mother tongues of the early BSAE speakers. The policy of mother tongue promotion in schools ultimately failed, and in 1979, the Department of Bantu Education allowed schools to choose their own language of instruction. English was largely the language of choice, because it was viewed as a key tool of social and economic advancement. BSAE has contrasting pronunciation and organization of vowels and consonants compared to the ones in standard English. For instance, “it lacks the tense/lax contrast and central vowels in the mesolectal variety.”


title: South African English

text: The difference between Black and White South Africans is based on their ethnic backgrounds, with them, as BSAE, being originally the first indigenous people that made a <nowiki>"new" English South Africa and developing speaking their tongue version of English and deciding not to speak South Africa'</nowiki>s native language of English, which is mostly exclusive for them due to it not being the majority language. In SAE It is primarily used for publicizing the differences between British and other forms of tongue speaking for native speakers in various communities of South Africa


title: South African English

text: The local native language of Black South African "new" English would lean more on the syllable side and would lean less on stress timing; due to this, the speech of the language would be affected by the length of vowel deduction in "new" English.


title: South African English

text: BSAE emerged from the influence of local native languages on the British English variety often taught in South African schools. After dispersing BSAE has been seen as three distinct subvarieties: the basilect, mesolect, and acrolect. Not much has yet been studied on the subvarieties of BSAE, and the distinctions between them aren’t yet fully defined. However, there are some notable pronunciation differences in the mesolect and acrolect.


title: South African English

text: The vowels in BSAE can be realized as five key phonemes: /i/, pronounced in words like “FLEECE” or KIT, /u/ in “FOOT” or “GOOSE”, /ɛ/ in “TRAP”, “DRESS”, or “NURSE”, /ɔ/ in LOT or FORCE, and /a/ as in CAR. /i/ may occasionally be pronounced [ɪ] in the acrolectal variety, though there is no consistent change among speakers. One difference in the acrolect in comparison to the mesolect is that it often uses the phoneme /ʌ/ in place of /a/.


title: South African English

text: In addition, many vowels that are normally diphthongs in most varieties are monophthongs in BSAE. For example, “FACE” in standard American English is typically pronounced as /feɪs/ or /fɛis/, but in BSAE is typically pronounced /fɛs/.


title: South African English

text: Black South African English analysis has not been researched or utilized enough due to its contrasting methods to Southern British norms. BSAE has contrasting pronunciation and organization of vowels and consonants compared to the ones in more commonly used languages such as other varieties of English. Due to English being an official language of South Africa, dialects that have contrary methods in language and pronunciation to English become isolated from the speech in that area. It has contrasting pronunciation and organization of vowels and consonants compared to the ones in English. For instance, “it lacks the tense/lax contrast and central vowels in the mesolectal variety.”


title: South African English

text: In Black South African English, the length of vowel usage is changeable however, length can be understood as a stress placement. An example being "sevénty, which puts more stress on the final syllable."


title: South African English

text: Additionally, BSAE differs from other forms of dialect by "having shorter tone/information units and having lower pitch and decrease intensity as the sentence concludes."


title: South African English

text: The use of certain words such as "maybe" are used as a conditional word that implies the result of something if a thing/event were to happen. Another distinctive trait of BSAE is the use of the word "that" as a complementizer. Furthermore, BSAE has a high frequency of the retention of question word order which is 0.86 per 1000 words.


title: South African English

text: Other findings show that the Cultural Linguistic explorations of World Englishes have been evaluating BSAE based on its cognitive sociolinguistic principles. It is a language that is still being studied due to its strong cultural and traditional ties to its mother tongues.


title: South African English

text: Historically, BSAE has been considered a "non-standard" variety of English, inappropriate for formal contexts, and influenced by indigenous African languages.


title: South African English

text: BSAE, or Black South African English, has its roots in European colonialism of the African continent in the 19th century. As a result of English being pushed by the colonizers of the region, the British, English became widespread in the South African region after it became necessary for indigenous African communities to use for success under the British. Much like in other colonies of the British, English became a necessity for advancement and economic security in the colony for indigenous Africans.


title: South African English

text: According to the Central Statistical Services, as of 1994 about 7 million black people spoke English in South Africa. BSAE originated in the South African school system, when the 1953 Bantu Education Act mandated the use of native African languages in the classroom. When this law was established, most of the native English-speaking teachers were removed from schools. This limited the exposure that black students received to standard varieties of English. As a result, the English spoken in black schools developed distinctive patterns of pronunciation and syntax, leading to the formation of BSAE. Some of these characteristic features can be linked to the mother tongues of the early BSAE speakers. The policy of mother tongue promotion in schools ultimately failed, and in 1979, the Department of Bantu Education allowed schools to choose their own language of instruction. English was largely the language of choice, because it was viewed as a key tool of social and economic advancement.