However, Teo Kok Seong said the trend also underscores a growing concern about the quality and direction of national schools.

Teo, a senior fellow with the National Council of Professors, said parents are of the view that Chinese-type schools offer better quality education due to their rigorous academic culture.

“Chinese school principals are very strict. They set a high standard for all to follow,” Teo told FMT. Their teachers are also regarded as hardworking and punctual, he added.

Teo said the work culture appears to be very different at national schools.

He was commenting after a Chinese school in Arau, Perlis raised eyebrows with an ‘all non-Chinese’ student enrolment for Year One this year.

Teo, who was involved in drafting the 2013-2025 Education Blueprint, noted that the government had aimed to make national schools the first choice for students of all backgrounds by this year.

However, he said national schools are increasingly being seen as Islamic rather than national institutions, leaving non-Muslim parents seeking alternatives for their children.

“The government cannot dismiss these concerns. Customers are always right.

“If parents are sending their children elsewhere, it signals that national schools are failing to meet expectations,” said Teo.

‘No longer world class’

Former MP Tawfik Ismail said Malaysia’s education system was once highly regarded, with institutions such as the Royal Military College (RMC), Victoria Institution (VI) and St John’s Institution offering world class education.

He said schools like VI had attracted the elites from Brunei and Indonesia, while RMC offered quality teachers.

“We need to retrace our steps to improve our national schools,” he told FMT.

He said the decline in national schools began in the early 1970s, when the government changed the medium of teaching from English to Malay. Confidence in the national school system began to erode due to the lack of Malay textbooks, he added.

Tawfik said these schools also became overly nationalistic.

Trilingual push

Noor Azimah Rahim, chairman of the Parent Action Group for Education, said practical factors also played a role in the choice of school.

She said the proximity of Chinese schools to residential areas and smaller class sizes allowed for easier access and more personalised attention.

“Parents recognise the growing importance of Mandarin, especially as Malaysia is strategically positioned near China, a major global economic power,” she said, adding that parents are pushing for their children to be trilingual.

They are also looking beyond primary and secondary schools, noting that Chinese universities are climbing in global rankings, she said, while the government is strengthening collaborations in institutions that offer technical and vocational education and training or TVET.