ABSTRACT
The growth of formal education in Malaysia is intricately linked with the history of her economic, social, and political development as a nation, and this is reflected in her educational objectives and structures. This chapter attempts to present briefly the growth of Malaysia's formal educational system in relation to the key social, economic, and political issues that have shaped its course. The democratization of education was a logical aim in post-independence Malaysia. The establishment of the English-medium International Islamic University, funded by Islamic nations, chiefly Saudi Arabia, seemed to observers to strike the high note in Malaysia's support of Islamic thought and education. The teaching of religious education and moral values has always received a great deal of attention in independent Malaysia. Three decades after independence, Malaysia's formal education system shows that far-reaching modifications have been made to inherited structures in efforts to serve national developmental goals better.
