KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 2 — Maszlee Malik has repeatedly joked that his ministry’s biggest accomplishment may be introducing black shoes as part of public school uniforms from today, but the outgoing education minister have achieved much more than that.

He announced earlier that he has tendered his resignation effective tomorrow following advice from Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, after serving for over 20 months.

Heading a ministry that perhaps needed the most overhaul, with a portfolio that was nationally and politically-sensitive, did not stop Maszlee from being the first Cabinet member to announce his ministry’s end-of-the-year report card.

In it, the ministry outlined its achievements with five focus points: returning love for education, quality of education, autonomy and accountability of education institutions, fostering love of reading and fulfilling the election manifesto.

With his replacement yet to be announced, Malay Mail takes a look back at some of the known changes Maszlee has implemented since his appointment in May 2018.

Great strides in Universities and University Colleges Act amendments

After almost five decades, amendments to three related Acts including the Universities and University Colleges Act (UUCA) 1971 were passed at the Dewan Rakyat in December 2018, paving the way for full abolishment of the Act in 2020.

Apart from UUCA, two other Acts are the Private Higher Educational Institutions Act 1996 and the Educational Institutions (Discipline) Act 1976.

The amendments to all three Acts which were aimed at ending a ban on students of higher education institutions being involved in political parties on campus was tabled by Maszlee himself.

Exams for Standard One, Two and Three students abolished

In October 2018, Maszlee announced the abolishment of Year One, Two and Three students’ mid-year and final exams from 2019 to allow schools to focus more on teaching and help pupils discover the joy of learning.

The examinations were replaced with a more objective assessment system last year.

Maszlee had said the move to abolish the examinations had also enabled the ministry to implement the Classroom-Based Assessment comprising games, simple projects, role playing, storytelling and quizzes.

Malaysia’s ranking in Pisa improves

Malaysia’s performance in the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) 2018 has improved and approaching the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) average in three forms of literacy, namely, reading, mathematics and science.

Based on the Pisa 2018 results, Malaysian students scored 415 points for reading, and 440 and 438 points for mathematics and science respectively.

Increasing accessibility and enrolment of those in the B40 group

In January 2019, Maszlee introduced a new policy aimed at helping those who are less fortunate gain access to good education with a 60 per cent quota for students from low-income B40 households in boarding schools.

At the time, Maszlee had said his ministry was committed to restoring the original objective of these schools, which was to help children from poor households who excelled in their studies and to stop well-to-do families from abusing the system.

Apart from allowing the less fortunate access to good education, Maszlee also made corrective measures that enabled 2,635 stateless children to be enrolled in schools since 2019.

Free breakfast for primary school children

Beginning January 2020, all primary school children nationwide will receive a free breakfast as part of the Free Breakfast Programme initiative by the Education Ministry, managed in the same way as the existing Supplementary Food Programme.

The announcement was made by Maszlee in August 2019. He had previously said the programme was to ensure primary school students are provided with a nutritious meal and to encourage bonding between pupils and teachers.

The programme is expected to cost the government between RM800 million and RM1.67 billion.