ABSTRACT
The Malaysia Education Blue Print 2013–2025 has been implemented since 2013. Out of the 11 transformation plans, Shift 3: Develop values-driven Malaysians emphasises the need for students to have leadership skills, strong universal values such as integrity, compassion, justice and altruism, to guide them in making ethical decisions. At the same time, it is important to balance the development of global citizenship with a strong national identity. Every student is supposed to leave university as a global citizen imbued with core, universal values and a strong Malaysian identity. The values they have learnt are supposed to be applied in their day-to-day lives, leading to more civic behaviour such as an increase in volunteerism; a willingness to embrace peoples of other nationalities, religions and ethnicity; and a reduction in corruption and crime. Moral Education and Islamic Education have been implemented as core subjects in primary and secondary education. Yet there are the usual complaints about adolescents being unruly, hedonistic and self-centred. This chapter will analyse the aspirations and purpose of Moral Education and Islamic Education to ensure the notion of focusing on schools and universities as sources of value, cultural norms and religiosity.
