The low Malay language achievement among Lower Secondary candidates

This paper categorizes the students that obtained low achievements that is those who scored C and D in the Malay Language subject in the Lower Secondary Assessment (PMR). A literature review was conducted to identify how many Lower Secondary Assessment (PMR) candidates that were in this category. Analysis were made based on documents obtained from the Malaysia Examination Board from year 2006 until 2011. The data collected from five zones that represented each state, the zone of the East Coast Malaysia, Southern Malaysia, Northern Malaysia, Central and East Malaysia were analysed descriptively by percentage and frequency. As a whole, the percentage of the low achievement for each zones are: the East Coast Malaysia zone (25.0% to 31.5%), Southern zone (27.6% to 35.5%), Northern zone (27.3% to 35.2%), Central zone (11.7% to 33.0%) and Eastern Malaysia zone (24.3% to 40.7%). The study shows that the Federal Territory of Putrajaya is least in the low achievement category, however, if the difference in percentage from the year 2006 to 2011 were to be observed, this state has increased significantly by 4.6%. The difference in percentage improvement is experienced by Melaka with 3.0%, while the highest is obtained by the Federal Territory of Labuan with 9.8%. Even though the percentages shown are relatively small, the number of candidates in this category is a worry.. Therefore, attempts to overcome or reduce these problem should be conducted as low achievement in Malay Language is interrelated with other subjects as well.