Page 138 - Jurnal Kurikulum BPK 2020

titles or subtitles. As skills are an integral part of many disciplines, today, designs under this
group includes these process designs. Malaysia national school curriculum adopts this first
category of curriculum design where curriculum is organised around subjects. This is also the
most common curriculum design throughout the world. The next category of curriculum
designs made up of ideas from the camp of educators believing in humanistic approaches, the
focus is on the child’s development especially of the affective domain. The interests and needs
of the child are used as a basis to achieve self- actualisation. In the extreme continuum of this
category of design, the curriculum could not be pre-determined but has to evolve according to
the child’s need and progress; this is the dynamic curriculum (Longstreet & Shane, 1993). The
last category of curriculum design is gaining more attention now as the human communities
question about the relevance of curriculum traditionally taught in school. This category of
curriculum design focuses on the problems of current living; it presents subject matters in an
integrated manner, cutting across the traditionally compartmentalised subjects, presumably
giving more meaning to schooling.

THE REVOLUTION OF MALAYSIA CURRICULUM

The Pre-Independence Curriculum (before 1957)

Malaysia or Malaya prior to 1957 was under the rule of the British. Schools were
already in existence especially in the little towns of Malaya. These schools used various
curricula; the Malay school or the ‘Pengajian pondok’ and Religious School used local
curriculum but the Chinese vernacular and Tamil vernacular schools were using curriculum
from China and India where they came from. The British brought in curriculum from the Britain
and they built schools, these schools used English as their medium of instruction (BPK, 2014).

The Post-Independence Curriculum (1958 to 1983)

At the time of Malaya’s Independence from Britain and the immediate subsequent
years, curriculum development in Malaya was piecemeal where committees of subject areas
were set up to plan and develop the curriculum in an ad hoc manner. These subject committees
were temporary and upon completion of the development of the curriculum, it was dissolved.
In the 1960s, realising the need to develop an education system that cater for national needs,
various studies were commissioned and Acts were enacted. Among these were the Rahman
Talib Report 1960, The Education Act 1961 and the National Language Act 1967. In 1970, the
National Education Policy was formulated, followed by the Cabinet Report 1979. All these
Acts and reports provided the direction and input for the development of the Malaysian
Education System and the Malaysian National Curriculum. In 1973, the Curriculum
Development Center was established, paving ways for a more systematic and organised
development of national curriculum in Malaysia. (BPK, 2014). Within this period of 1958 to
1983, Malaysian schools were using an assortment of the localised Malay school curriculum,
British curriculum as well as remnants of China and India school curriculum.

The New Curriculum for Primary School
(Kurikulum Baru Sekolah Rendah, KBSR, 1983)

In the late 1970s, under the instruction from the Cabinet, a study was conducted to
examine the existing education policies. In 1979, the findings of this study better known as the
Cabinet Report on the Study of the National Education Policies(1979)was published. The study
suggested that the Malaysian Education System needs to focus on establishing national unity

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