SJK(T) Simpang Lima - First Cluster School

“I am very happy that my school, SJK (T) Simpang Lima has been selected by the Ministry of Education as one of the Cluster schools in the country”, said Mrs Elizaberth, the headmistress of the school. “It further motivates and encourages me to create the school as a centre of excellence”, added she when EWRF News Desk contacted her.

SJK(T) Simpang Lima, Klang is the first Tamil school which was selected as a Cluster school among the 30 schools appointed under the Education Ministry’s cluster of excellent schools concept. SJK(T) Simpang Lima is the biggest Tamil school in the country with an enrolment of 2016 students.  In 2006, 18 students scored 7As in UPSR and 13 students obtained 6As in the same examination last year. The students also recorded 66.5% pass in Bahasa Melayu and 62.9% pass in English last year. The PTA (Parents Teachers Association) with the support from the public managed to build a four story  additional building for the school to accommodate the increasing number of students.

The 30 selected cluster schools consist of Primary schools (National schools, Chinese schools and Tamil schools), Secondary schools (Residential schools, Technical schools, Religious schools, Premier schools, 100-year-old schools, Putrajaya and Cyberjaya schools and Special model schools), Special Education school at Primary, Secondary and Vocational levels, Post Secondary colleges such as Matriculation and Teacher training, International schools and Private schools. 

Cluster schools in Malaysia will be modeled on the second stream. The aim of creating cluster schools is that they will serve as models for seamless articulation between grades, best practices in curriculum, instruction and assessment. The selection of cluster schools is made based on curriculum criteria, student profile, management criteria and the physical set up of the school. 

The benefits for the cluster schools are, school heads given autonomy in five key areas namely human resources, school funds, student intake, teaching and learning, examinations and evaluation, school heads can choose some of their staff, for example, experts or coaches, funds will be channeled directly to schools, schools to be given the freedom to choose 10 per cent of their student intake and school can offer additional subjects not in the national curriculum.

It was told that the education ministry is targeting for an initial batch of 300 schools. The other 270 schools are open for applications and interested schools can apply through the state education departments.

EWRF hopes that the cluster schools concept will be a great success to be implemented in Malaysian schools on par with schools in the well developed countries. EWRF would like to urge all Tamil schools to strive for excellence so that all the schools will meet the criteria to be termed as cluster schools in future.