MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, MALAYSIA

THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SAFE SCHOOL

PROGRAMME IN MALAYSIA

Dr. Khair bin Mohamad Yusof

Deputy Director General
(Policy And Education Development Sector)
Ministry Of Education

BACKGROUND
1. The issue related to the safety of students in schools cannot be
compromised by the Ministry of Education, Malaysia. This issue
requires commitment from all school management including the
District and State Education Departments. It should be handled
wholistically involving various parties.

2. Based on a survey by the Ministry of Education of Malaysia in 2009,

81.57% accident cases involving students happened outside schools
and only 18% happened in schools.

3. The main threat to the safety of Malaysian students mostly comes

from the various mode of transportation of students. The survey
revealed that 26.83% of students travel by bus, 20.17% on foot,

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 10.52% by bicycle, 3.58% by motorcycles, 38.34% are sent by
guardians, 0.46% by boat and 0.11% by train.

4. In this case, the roles of parents and society are needed to monitor
and advise 5.4 million children who travel to school daily. With this
number of students going to school every day, the accident risk factor
is very high.

5. Besides that, the safety of students should also be managed in other

aspects including their safety while carrying activities in and
outside of school premises, the safety of the school
infrastructure, safety in handling social issues, safety in facing
crises and disasters as well as safety in facing threats.

OPERATION
6. In line with the development of safety issues involving students, the
Ministry of Education, Malaysia realizes the need to review the
concept and Safe School Manual to fulfill present and future safety
issues.

7. Through this review, the Ministry of Education hopes that students

and all those who work in schools will feel safe. Thus, they are able to
focus fully on the process of teaching and learning as well as other
school activities.

8. A safe and conducive environment in schools will increase students’

self-confidence in academic achievement and moral development.
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 Thus, it will lead to their willingness in contributing positively towards
the school, society and nation.

RECOGNITION OF SAFE SCHOOL

9. Based on the 1996 Education Act Allocation 130 ( the authority of the
Ministry to draw up regulations), Subsection 2(n), the Ministry of
Education decided to set up a Safety Standard for every school and it
emphasized the effort to instill safety in schools and its surroundings
continuously.

10. A standardized instrument for Safe School will be used in schools to

carry out self – assessment. Our final aim is to have a set of Safe
Recognition Standard for all schools. The five safety aspects
involving students should include the followings:

10.1 Management of students’ safety when conducting activities

10.2 Management of safe school infrastructure
10.3 Safe management in handling social ills
10.4 Safe management in handling crises and disasters
10.5 Safe management in facing threats

11. The Ministry of Education of Malaysia has prepared a standardised

instrument for Safe Schools that will be used by schools for self-
assessment of safety in their respective schools. This instrument
comprises 70 items based on the five safety aspects that will be
evaluated. Each item requires a specific score that is based on
correct and accurate data and information.
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12. The number of scores taken from the five evaluated safety aspects
will decide the level of safety in a school as follows:

Percentage
N
Achieved School Standard
o

1 80-100 SAFE SCHOOL

The level of safety in school must be

2 50 - 79
raised

Special attention given towards safety

3 0-49
in the school

PILOT PROJECT
13. To ensure the validity and reliability of this instrument, the School
Division in 2010 carried out a pilot project on Safe School Standard in
642 schools involving 321 primary and 321 secondary schools in
Malaysia. The results of this pilot project are as follows:

TOTAL NUMBER OF SAFE SCHOOLS ( PILOT

PROJECT)

SCHOOL CATEGORY
0-49% 50-79% 80-100%
TOTAL NUMBER OF
SCHOOLS
3 136 503
( SECONDARY +
PRIMARY)
0VERALL 0.47% 21.18% 78.35%
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 PERCENTAGE
( SECONDARY +
PRIMARY)

IMPLEMENTATION STATUS

14. Together with the Information Management Division, efforts have

been put into place by the Ministry of Education of Malaysia to
develop an online automation system on the Safe School Standard
Instrument. The aim is to facilitate schools in preparing reports as
well as to ease the Ministry of Education in monitoring directly the
safety aspects which need to be strengthened.

15. In 2011, the use of the Safe School Standard will be further extended
to a total of 1,000 schools that is 500 secondary schools and 500
primary schools.

16. The School Management Division is currently preparing a proposal

concerning the above to be tabled at the management meeting of the
Ministry of Education of Malaysia, in the near future.

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