The Struggle of Orang Asli in Education: Quality of Education

Abstract

This article is a case study on the education of Orang Asli in Malaysia. Indigenous people or “orang asli” are the oldest inhabitants of Peninsular Malaysia but they are the minority among the total population in Malaysia.  A study showed that around 50 percent of the students from the Orang Asli community do not further their study in secondary school after finishing their primary school and only 30 percent of students of Orang Asli finish their secondary school, which is less than half of the national average. The statistics of the education progress of Orang Asli are quite worrisome for a lot of parties especially the government and there are a lot of factors that contribute to those, not good-looking results. In order to improve the quality of education, studies on the challenges faced by the Orang Asli are a must. There are a lot of factors causing that specific problem. One of the factors is would be the awareness amongst the Orang Asli community towards education and another factor is would be the Orang Asli accessibility to their nearest education institution. In a nutshell, the Orang Asli are the minority communities that had been marginalized for decades and to achieve the aim to reduce poverty and uplift quality of life them, education is the main key to success.