Chinese Independent High School
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chinese Independent High Schools (Traditional Chinese: 華文獨立中學 Simplified Chinese: 华文独立中学) are a type of private high school in Malaysia. These schools have been built by the ethnic Chinese in Malaysia since the 19th century. Even so, the school was set up with the main intention to provide subsidized education to students irrespective of their race, religion, country and creed.
There are a total of 60 in the country and they represent only a small number of schools in Malaysia. All Chinese Independent High Schools are maintained throughout the student fees and donations from the public, the headquarter management of all Chinese Independent High Schools is located at Kajang town center, Selangor, known in English as United Chinese School Committees Association of Malaysia -- UCSCAM, the Chinese called it Dong Jiao Zong (Chinese:董教总).
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[edit] Dong Jiao Zong
(Chinese:马来西亚华校董事联合会总会（董总）) [1]
Persekutuan Persatuan - Persatuan Lembaga Pengurus Sekolah China Malaysia
United Chinese School Committees Association of Malaysia.(ucscam)
Address: Lot 5, Seksyen 10, Jalan Bukit, 43000 Kajang, Selangor.
email： ucscam@djz.edu.my phone : 03-87362337 fax : 03-87362779
[edit] Dong Jiao Zong's policy
A "Rooted" Chinese
According to UCSCAM (United Chinese School Committees Association of Malaysia), known as DJZ (Dong Jiao Zong - the stronghold/fortress of Chinese), it was the British colonial policy (1786-1957) allowing the vernacular language schools to exist and develop, at the same time enabling the Malays while placing restrictions on the Chinese. Students of British school gained better opportunities in employment than any other schools. Nevertheless, under such policy, the development of Chinese language education is thriving. Before Malaysia gained independency, the Chinese has had 1300 primary schools, nearly 100 high schools, and even a Nanyang University, built without the financial support of the government. The report of UCSCAM claimed that the main reason so many Chinese parents sending their children to Chinese school is that Chinese parents generally hope their next generation can become "A person that is like a Chinese people", with love and awareness of nation, love their own culture and traditions, ethnic pride, and most importantly to have ethnic "root".
Mr. Lim lian Geok (Chinese:林连玉), known as the "Soul of ethnic Chinese" (Chinese:"族魂"), he is the former president of Chinese education, said: "One’s culture is the soul of one’s ethnic, its value as important as our lives." And if any of you (Chinese) want to inherit Chinese cultural heritage, and if any of you (Chinese) want to live a "root" Chinese, your children must be sent to Chinese school.
"Final goal"
The UCSCAM believed that the government of Malaysia is having a "final goal" to eradicate the Chinese schools and Tamil schools. The report claimed that the Government of Malaysia's culture and language education policy, over the past 50 years was, to not give up implementation of the "final goal", that is, only a final national origins of the school - "national school" with the Malay language (National language) as the main medium of instruction. The language of other ethnic groups, namely Chinese and Tamil, and so can only serve as a foreign language. The reason given by the government was that the Chinese and Tamil primary schools are the root cause of disunity of this country. In order to achieve "national unity", all other non-National Schools should be restricted on the development, and finally merge with the National School.
"Do not give up and do not compromise"
The standpoint of UCSCAM is, only the implementation of multilingualism origins of school policy is the answer to Malaysia's truly multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-language, multi-religious multi-national situations. Dong Jiao Zong's distinctive position for this protest is unchanged over the last 50 years. Therefore, Dong Jiao Zong will continue to neither haughty nor humble in attitude, standing firm in maintaining the mother-tongue education, do not give up, do not compromise, ready to fight again for another 50 years. [2]
[edit] History
After independence, the government instructed all schools to surrender their property and be assimilated into the normal school system. This caused an uproar among the Chinese and a compromise was achieved with the government that the schools would become National Type Schools. In these schools, the government is only in charge of the teaching personnel, while the land belongs to the school privately. This was still viewed with scepticism among the Chinese. This caused a domino effect among the other Chinese High Schools, with over sixty schools converting to National Type Schools. The schools that converted included famous schools like Chung Ling High School, Penang Chinese Girls' High School in Penang Island, Jit Sin High School on the mainland, and Ave Maria Convent High School, Sam Tet High School in Ipoh. Teaching and learning of Mandarin was often compulsory in these schools, with most schools dedicating at least one seventh to one fifth of their teaching time per week to Mandarin studies.
A minority of Chinese schools refused the proposal and became private high schools, and these are known as Chinese independent high schools. During 1960s and 70s, there was a revival of Chinese schools. Many of the national-type high schools reopened their independent high school branch. Currently there are 60 independent Chinese high schools in Malaysia, including the largest secondary school in the country, Foon Yew High School, which has over 7000 students. Besides, Foon Yew High School was also the first school which refused the government's proposal.Also,Foon Yew High School is also the first high school to have a branch campus,the branch campus is located in Kulai
Whereas National Type schools are supported and funded by the Malaysian government, independent Chinese secondary schools are supported through student fees and donations from the public.
[edit] Assessment
Students in Chinese Independent High Schools take a standardised test known as the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC), which is restricted to the 60 Chinese independent secondary schools in Malaysia. Some students in these schools take Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia examinations as private candidates. UEC has been run by the Dong Jiao Zhong (the association of Chinese school teachers and trustees) since 1975. It is recognised as the entrance qualification in many tertiary educational institutions in the United Kingdom, United States, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Australia, Canada and many others. It is not recognised by the government of Malaysia for entry into public universities, but most private colleges recognise it. In May 2004 the National Accreditation Board (LAN) required students entering local private colleges using any qualification other than the SPM to pass the SPM Malay paper. This drew protests and the then Higher Education Minister Dr Shafie Salleh exempted UEC students from this requirement.
The UEC is available in three levels: Vocational Unified Exam (UEC-V), UEC Junior Middle Level (UEC-JML) and Senior Middle Level (UEC-SML). The syllabus and examinations for the UEC-V and UEC-JML are only available in the Chinese language. The UEC-SML has questions for mathematics, sciences (biology, chemistry and physics), bookkeeping, accounting and commerce in both Chinese and English.
Chinese educationalist Dr Kua Kia Soong mentions the introduction of the UEC in his book Protean Saga: The Chinese Schools of Malaysia. According to the book, the introduction of the UEC led to Dr Mahathir Mohamad, then the education minister and later the prime minister, summoning the Chinese educationalists to parliament. To quote the book "The latter (Mahathir) did not mince his words but told the Dong Jiao Zong leaders that UEC had better not be held or else ... He did not ask for any response and dismissed the Chinese educationalists with a curt ... 'that is all'."
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