The government has two departments controlling education: a Ministry of Education which covers school level, and Ministry of Higher Education dealing with tertiary education. The public school system is multi-lingual, and private schools and homeschooling is also available.
There are two types of primary school, which students start aged 7: the vernacular school and the national school. Children can be educated in Chinese, Tamil, Malay or Punjabi languages. At secondary schools, children are usually streamed into sciences or arts, with sciences being seen as the more desirable. In state secondary schools, Malay is the language used for teaching, whereas there are private secondary schools where pupils are taught in Chinese.
Students wishing to go on to university have to pass ‘matriculation’. Many universities are heavily subsidised by the state, but in recent years more private universities have emerged, often twinned with an overseas institution, such as Monash University or the University of Abertay.
