The study made the distinction of separating the population to Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Christians and the unaffiliated, and found that on average, Muslim men would have attained more formal schooling than those of the respective faiths listed above.
Muslim men go through an average of 10.6 years of formal education. This can be compared with Buddhists (10.4 years), Hindus (10.3), Christians (9.6), and those who don’t proclaim to belong to the four major faiths, or “unaffiliated” (8.2), Malay Mail Online reported.
Breaking it down by gender within a religion, the Pew study found that like in many other Muslim countries, Muslim women here seem to be closing in, if not already overtaken, their male counterparts in education, especially at tertiary level.
In Malaysia, the survey found that younger Muslim women in Malaysia are now more likely to have post-secondary degrees compared with young Muslim men, following a global trend among those in Muslim countries.
“In higher education, the gender gap among Muslims has narrowed by three percentage points over generations.
“Not only that, but in some countries, the gender gap has reversed among the youngest Muslims. This means that young Muslim women are now more likely than young Muslim men to have post-secondary degrees,” the study revealed.
In terms of the number of years, like the local Muslim men, Muslim women here top the survey results against women who practise other faiths,
The breakdown is as follows: Muslim women in Malaysia enjoy schooling for 9.8 years, Buddhists (9.2 years), Hindus (9.1), Christians (8.4), and the unaffiliated (8.2).
The Pew survey, was based on a variety of statistical sources in different countries and in Malaysia, the only source was the government’s 2010 national census report.
A Khazanah Research Institute (KRI) study released in October provided a similar survey on the level of education in the country, but it was broken down by race, and further sub-categorised by the level of education of the parent of each child.
That survey helped to show that Chinese Malaysians topped the list, among those who had some primary or secondary education regardless of their parents’ background. However, when it came to parents with a degree, the highest majority of Indian kids were also able to match their parents qualification.