ABSTRACT
The fall of Singapore and the Japanese Occupation changed the nature of the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized. The colonial population was no longer content with the type of colonialism of the 1930s. The colonizers were acutely aware of the nationalism and anti-colonialism that the Japanese Occupation had stirred up. British colonial officials came back with plans to use colonial education to prepare the population for self-government. The British Empire in Southeast Asia was to be a commonwealth of self-governing states and colonies. However, the path to self-government became the road to independence. Using education, and in particular history, colonial education officials sought to foster a ‘Malayan outlook’ for future citizens who could participate in self-government.
