ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the emergence of a multilingual primary school system and subsequent government attempts to desegregate system of education. Since independence, the Malaysian educational system has allowed for the vernacular primary schools of ethnic minorities, partly financed by the respective communities, to coexist with the Malay primary school and the English primary school. This multilingual primary school system has its historical roots in the British colonial era. Subsequent developments showed that this segregated system of primary education was regarded by some quarters of the Malays as the root cause of ethnic polarisation in the country, though strongly disputed by Chinese and Indian educationists who are staunch advocates of cultural pluralism. The main target of this ultimate objective was the Chinese secondary schools which had developed strongly alongside the Chinese primary schools. The implementation of the divide and rule policy by the British had resulted in socioeconomic disparity between the Malays and the non-Malays, especially the Chinese.
