An Assessment of the implementation of Affirmative Action in education in Malaysia

Abstract: Malaysia, in order to achieve its objective and aspiration in Vision 2020 of being a developed country by 2020 and transforming the economy into a knowledge-based one, considers the human resource development as an important strategy. Despite of Malaysian government’s high investment in education, relative to GDP, the quality and competitiveness of labour force in Malaysia is debatable. The implementation of ethnic-based affirmative action policies in the country is considered as one of the reasons for its ill-prepared workforce. Given the above concerns, this thesis seeks to assess the affirmative action policies in education in Malaysia