Sekolah Berasrama Penuh or full boarding schools have been in existence in Malaysia since the 80’s and was first created to enhance equality in the education system by providing a stable and conducive schooling environment for students of rural demographic.
It has been more than 30 years since the establishment of SBPs in the country and today we have 69 schools with an average enrolment rate of 800 students per school which translates to about more than 55,000 students nationwide including 5 SBPs in Sabah and Sarawak. Sekolah Berasrama Penuh is fully administered by the Ministry of Education specifically by the Bahagian Pengurusan Sekolah Berasrama Penuh and only focuses on secondary education covering form 1 to form 5.
In line with inclusive education and the national education policy which aims to practice access to education for all, it is important to generate discussion around the question why Sekolah Berasrama Penuh does not accept applications from students studying in vernacular schools as well as Sekolah Rendah Agama when vernacular schools are schools also governed by the Education Ministry with similar content for syllabus.
This policy is adverse towards inclusive education as it discriminates against thousands of students who are studying in vernacular schools as the system has about more than 1300 Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina (SJKC) and more than 500 Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Tamil (SJKT) nationwide. This is effectively closing a government funded educational opportunity in a public schooling system to Malaysian citizens just because they choose to study in a different stream of school under the public education system. In addition, there are thousands of Bumiputera students studying in vernacular schools belonging to multiple ethnicity especially Malay Muslims. Why would the Ministry of Education discriminate against bumiputera students in vernacular and religious schools? This policy must be revisited at least for the benefit of B40 students.
It also seems hypocritical when the education ministry spends ample time, resources and energy to forge more unity amongst students but maintains a blanket exclusion towards students from vernacular schools to enrol in SBPs. This is not fair. Forging unity works both ways. Unity and appreciating racial diversity needs to be a shared concern and a collective responsibility of all levels of policy implementation especially in crucial sectors like education.
It is also illogical to maintain this policy when all students have to undertake a common entry exam i.e. the Ujian Kemasukan Sekolah Berasrama Penuh (UKSBP) during application before students can qualify to be enrolled in SBPs.
It is our urgent appeal to the Minister of Education and to the Ministry of Education to uphold the principle the Prime Minister of Malaysia has promised to uphold which is the “Malaysian Family” and taking care of everyone’s interests.