As a teacher trainer in Malaysia, I have found some parents asking me this very question. They wonder if their child should be sent to a government school or private school. In my post today, I hope to provide a few points which would hopefully clear the air on this issue.
The Misconceptions
Many parents seem to have a preference over private schools because it is deemed 'better' when compared to national schools. I would then ask, better in terms of what exactly? For private schools, you are paying for a few things, smaller classroom size, better facilities and perhaps better connections for the future.
However, it does not mean that national schools are in any way inferior. smaller classroom size is not always an advantage. In fact, you want to look for a class that is between 20-30 students. Too few students, it can be difficult to run effective learning activities such as discussions. Too many and you get chaos.
In terms of better facilities and better connections, this is all a matter of preference. For one, I think there is no difference between an air conditioned room and an open air classroom. However, internet and computers are important tools as long as they are utilized by the teacher.
University Choice
To simplify your decision in deciding between private and government school boils down to university choice. I know, your child is only 7 and now is too early, but its not that hard. However, you have to decide if you are planning to send your child to a local or overseas university.
The general rule is that, if you have no plans to send your child overseas for their university education, don't send them to a private school. It will become superbly difficult for them to adapt to the culture and way of doing things in a local university. This stems from different teaching and learning philosophies between local and overseas universities.
Scholarship Opportunities
The next point is of course scholarship opportunities. Malaysia gives out a lot of scholarships. Most of these scholarships look at your SPM results and not O-levels or IGCSE. As such, if you plan to save thousands of Ringgit in tuition fees, do consider putting your child through government schools.
Conclusion
This article is kept short to avoid one important thing, information overload. This is the first in a series of articles that I will be writing for althed.com . I will dive in deeper in some of the aspects mentioned above. However, if you want me to address any items above, do drop me a comment below.
The author of this is post is Alvin Auh, a teacher trainer and lecturer with a government teacher training college. He specializes in teacher education and has a passion in teaching children of all ages.