Kelantanese malay parents’ views On decision of sending their children to chinese primary school.

In year 2000, there were more than 60,000 non-Chinese students, whereby the majorities are Malay students were enrolled into Chinese schools throughout Malaysia. In this study, the researcher focused mainly on the Malay students who were sent by their parents to Chinese primary schools in Kelantan. The study was performed using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Firstly, the enrolment data of Malay students from year 2000 to 2009 in all Chinese primary schools in Kelantan was collected to see the Malay students’ enrolment trend in Chinese schools. Later, a total of 300 Malay parents from fourteen Chinese primary schools in Kelantan were chosen as respondents to participate in the questionnaire study. This was to find out the factors that influenced them to send their children to Chinese primary schools, and also their benefits and losses after sending their children to Chinese schools. The Malay parents’ social-demographic background (occupation type, monthly household income and education level) was also being analysed, to see which group formed the majority of sending their children to Chinese schools. Besides, semi-structured interviews were carried out among the selected schools’ headmasters and 10 Malay parents who sent their children to Chinese schools, in order to obtain more in-depth opinions and answers. The outcomes of the study were: Firstly, the trend of Malay students enrolling in Chinese primary schools in Kelantan from year 2000 to 2009 shows a very positive rate, which was 54.5%. Secondly, 54.3% of the research respondents earned less than RM1000 monthly as their household income. Thirdly, “the perspective of my child’s future” is the most important factor that had influenced Malay parents in Kelantan to send their children to Chinese primary schools.