More non-Chinese enrol in Chinese schools now compared to a decade ago

KUALA LUMPUR: The enrolment of non-Chinese students in Chinese vernacular schools saw a rising trend in 2020 compared to 2010, says Education Minister Dr Mohd Radzi Md Jidin (pic).

In a written reply in Parliament, Mohd Radzi said based on the data from the Education Ministry, the enrolment trend among Malay students in these schools showed an increase from 9.5% in 2010 to 15.33% this year.

For Indian students, the data showed an increase from 1.67% to 2.75% in the same period.

The data for the other races showed an increase from 1.02% in 2010 to 1.67% in 2020.

"However, the percentage of enrolment of Chinese students in Chinese vernacular schools showed a decrease from 88.16% in 2010 to 80.25% in 2020," Mohd Radzi told Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad (PH-Setiawangsa).

Nik Nazmi had asked the Ministry to state the distribution of national schools, Chinese and Tamil vernacular schools and private schools.

For Tamil vernacular schools, the majority of students comprised Indian students (99%).

"The participation of Malay, Chinese and of other races is less than 1% in the same period," he said.

Meanwhile for private schools, Chinese students recorded the highest number with 65.88% in 2020, followed by Malays including in Sabah and Sarawak (26.96%), Indians (4%) and other races (3.17%).

"The participation of Malay students have shown an increase of 0.65% while Chinese students showed a declining trend of 0.44% while Indian students also decreased by 0.21% compared to 2019," he said.

He also said that the trend showed that Malay students’ enrolment in national school between 2010 until 2020 was between 93% and 94%.

"The enrolment of Chinese students shows a declining trend from 1.17% in 2010 to 0.73% in 2020.

"The enrolment of Indian students also dropped from 3.15% to 2.63% within the same period.

"As for the other races, it shows a slight increase from 2% in 2010 to 2.84% in 2020," he said.