Indigenous educational systems as basic premises and formulae in planning for the future: a case for Sabah

Abstract

Before the coming of the Europeans to Sabah in the late 19th. Century, indigenous educational systems were not on an established basis. Informal education was through traditions and culture. The establishment of the British Chartered Company in 1881 saw beginnings of a more formal type of education. Apart from the Islamic religious schools, Christian Missionaries set up schools with English and the vernacular languages as mediums of instructions: the Chinese, with Mandarin as their medium of instruction and the Malay language as the medium in limited number of government primary schools. It was these indigenous educational systems that existed when the Malaysian national education system was adopted after Sabah gained independence through the formation of Malaysia. To achieve Vision 2020 represents the challenges facing Sabah education today.