The Cluster School Concept Impact

THE IMPACTS OF CLUSTER SCHOOL CONCEPT TOWARDS SCHOOL STAFFS AND STUDENTS IN SMKA MAAHAD HAMIDIAH, KAJANG,

SELANGOR

2012

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First and foremost, all praise is to Allah, the Almighty, the Benevolent for his

blessings and guidance for giving me the inspiration to complete this project and

instilling in all of us the strength to see that this report becomes a reality. Without his

blessings this report will never be completed and just halt in the dreams without the

reality.

Besides, many people have played their roles in this research which leads to

the creation and completion of this report. I would like to express our gratitude to all

who have helped in the planning, brainstorming, writing and editing stages of this

report. Firstly, all the credits should be given to my instructor, Madam Zariati bt

Radzali as she is the main characters who have showed me the path of writing a

good report. She have contributed the main idea of this report by proofread the topic,

questions and not to mention most of the contents involved in this report. She is also

part of my encouragement which inspired me greatly to finish this work on time. The

good deeds she has given will not be forgotten as she showed some examples of the

report and guidance that related to my issues of report to me.

Next, I would like to thank my parents for giving me the huge contribution in

many ways such as money, ideas, advises, and not to mentions co-operations for me

to complete this report. The teachers, school staffs and also students of Sekolah

Menengah Kebangsaan Agama Maahad Hamidiah, Kajang who involved in this

research also will not be abandon away because they were fully contributed their

times and ideas for me to seal the project perfectly. The outcome of this research will

not be completed if they are not contributed their ideas for the survey.

Finally, I would take this opportunity to thank my friends, acquaintances and

colleagues who were very eager to help me to complete this survey. They have

backed me up with a lot of encouragements and useful advises. Without the help of

the particular parties that I have mentioned above, I would face many difficulties

while doing this survey. Thank you.


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ABSTRACT

Good education system is important to a nation because education always be

the priority to in developing a country. In Malaysia, Ministry of Education has

announced new school concept which is Cluster School concept in January 16th,

2006 which includes in Chapter 9, Main Plan of Education Development [Pelan Induk

Pembangunan Pendidikan (PIPP)]. The purpose of this study was to discover about

the cluster school concept as well as the impact and effectiveness of the concept

towards the school staffs, teachers and students of SMKA Maahad Hamidiah. Three

types of instruments had been used during the research, which is a set of

questionnaire, secondary data and interview. The questionnaire was distributed to 60

respondents, which is 44 among the students (whole class) and 16 among the

teachers and school staffs. The finding shows that there are more advantages rather

than disadvantages of the cluster school concept. The outcome of the research

shows that even though most of the respondents give a bad perception toward this

concept, this concept still brings the advantages towards the school staffs, teachers

and students. Thus, the early hypothesis are approved but, based on the findings,

the results are more to the good side of this concept. Lastly, some recommendations

also had been put forward for guidance and references.


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TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE

Acknowledgement 1

Abstract 2

Table of Contents 3

List of Figures and Tables 4

1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study

1.1 Problem Statement

1.2 Objectives of the Study

1.3 Research Questions

1.4 Significance of the Study

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7

8

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2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW 10

3.0 METHODOLOGY 11

4.0 RESEARCH FINDINGS 13

5.0 DISCUSSION 20

6.0 CONCLUSION 21

References 22

Appendices 23


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LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE 1: The number of the genders of the respondent.

FIGURE 2: The number of the respondents by age range.

FIGURE 3: The percentage of respondents by marital status.

FIGURE 4: The percentage that shows the understanding of respondents about

cluster school concept.

FIGURE 5: The number of respondents that knows about the concept.

FIGURE 6: The number of respondents that seen the changes or differences.

FIGURE 7: The percentage of respondents that seen the types of changes and

differences.

FIGURE 8: The percentage of respondents about how they view about the concept.

FIGURE 9: The number of respondents that agree or disagree about does the cluster

school concept affects the student’s academic performance positively.


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1.0 INTRODUCTION

Education system plays a vital role in order to help a nation to develop and

expand. The education system developments are closely related to the country

social, economic and political needs in order to make an improvement to the nation

(Aziah Ismail & Abdul Ghani Abdullah, 2011). Hence, good education system is

important to a nation because education always be the priority to in developing a

country. Good education system is also vital in a country because it will help the

country in building and shaping a good personality of an individual in order to

generate the future leader of the nation. The development of a nation depends on the

youngsters and it means if the youngsters did not have a good education, the nation

might corrupted or undeveloped.

On January 16th, 2006 the government of Malaysia had announced the 9th

Malaysia Plan (RMK-9) which includes the new system of the education. The cluster

school of excellence (CSE) was introduced to enhance the education system of

Malaysia. This CSE concept was put under the Main Plan of Education Development

[Pelan Induk Pembangunan Pendidikan (PIPP)] 2006-2010 which includes in

Chapter 9 of this plan can be seen as a step to move forward in enhancing the nation

education system. “The plan has outlined six strategic thrusts including the thrust of

accelerating Excellence in Educational Institutions of Malaysia. Based on this thrust,

some excellent schools were and will be selected and recognized as cluster schools

of excellence (CSE), cohort by cohort, and obtained some degree of autonomy to

accelerate their organizational excellence” (Aziah Ismail & Abdul Ghani Abdullah,

2011; Ministry of Education, 2006).

The school that fulfill the prerequisites and have potential to be excellence in their

cluster will be announced as CSE. The CSE concept will affect not only the school,

but also the nation because the school will be helped to achieve world-class standard

and internationally recognized. The teachers, students and school staffs or maybe

the school administration itself will have some difficulties in realizing the aim of the

CSE concept. They might have the difficulties in adapting with new rules and

regulations which will always changed because the school administration will be the

manager of the curriculum. This situation might give a burden to the teachers,

students and school staffs to cooperate with it. Even, the District Education Office

(PPD) and Department of State Education (JPN) have less power to manage


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because the autonomy that had been given to the school (Utusan Malaysia, 2007).

That is why some teachers, students and school staffs are not willing to accept this

concept to be implemented at the school. Thus, any changes that being made to

improve the education system might have advantages and as well as disadvantages.


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1.1 Background of study

Cluster school of excellence (CSE) is a new concept of education in Malaysia to

enhance the current system of education. This new concept had been announced in

2006 that include in 9th Malaysia Plan (RMK-9) 2006-2010. This concept also was put

in the Chapter 9 of the Main Plan of Education Development [Pelan Induk

Pembangunan Pendidikan (PIPP)] 2006-2010. This concept was parallel to the RMK-

9 which has place great importance on education, training and lifelong learning

(Malaysia, 2006). There are 120 schools from 9,943 schools in Malaysia recognized

as CSE presently (Aziah Ismail & Abdul Ghani Abdullah, 2011; Ministry of Education,

2010). This plan is seen as one of the step for Ministry of Education in order to

improve the current education system.

Cluster schools is a brand name given to the selected schools in Malaysia which

have been identified as being excellent within their cluster from the aspect of school

management and students excellence (Aziah Ismail & Abdul Ghani Abdullah, 2011;

Ministry of Education, 2006b). The schools that fulfill the criteria, such as the

excellence in academic and co-curricular or excellence in their respective cluster will

be announced as cluster school of excellence or CSE. The opinion and the

involvement of the stakeholders such as Parents Teacher Association, alumni, head

of school and teachers are also being evaluated as criteria of the CSE concept.


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1.2 Problem statement

In 2006, Ministry of Education had announced the Cluster School concept that

parallel to the 9th Malaysia Plan (RMK-9) which has place great importance on

education, training and lifelong learning. Presently 120 schools from 9,943 schools

had been recognized around this nation, are already announced by the Ministry of

Education as CSE. SMKA Maahad Hamidiah is one of the schools that selected to be

the cluster school of excellence.

The purpose of this study is to identify about the implication of the CSE concept

towards the teachers, students and school staffs in the respective school. The CSE

concept brings a lot of advantages, but the disadvantages are still exists. Most of

them did not accept this new concept because for them, it is a burden. The often

changes of the rules and regulations is the main factors why they did not want the

concept to be implemented in their school. Most of the school administration uses the

autonomy given in administrate the school management and it is as simple as try and

error process. It is important that school administration should give attention towards

these problems.

1.3 Objectives of the study

The objectives of this study are:

1) To identify the view from teachers, students and school staffs about how they

define this concept and also their personal perception about the cluster school of

excellence (CSE) concept.

2) To discover the impacts of CSE concept either it is a burden or disadvantage

or advantage towards the teachers, school staffs and students after this concept was

implemented to their school.

3) To recognize the teachers, school staffs and students opinion on how they

view this CSE concept in their life as a person that involve in the education field

which is school.

4) To evaluate the effectiveness of the CSE concept that had been introduced

by Ministry of Education in 2006.

5) To suggest the ways on how to improve the CSE concept so that this concept

will not be a burden either to the students, teachers or school staffs.


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1.4 Research questions

1) What is the definition of Cluster School concept?

2) What are the implications of Cluster School concept towards school staffs and

students?

3) What are the benefits of the Cluster School concept?

4) How effective the Cluster School concept is?

5) What can be among the ways in improving the Cluster School concept?

1.5 Significance of the study

This study was conducted to help the students, teachers and school staffs to

embrace the CSE concept thus they will be able to gain benefits from it even there

are a lot of weaknesses that can be found in this concept as claim by many teachers

and students also the school staffs itself. Other than that, this research also to find

out about the effectiveness of this concept towards respective school. This finding

also can help them to understand this concept and be able to accept this concept to

be implemented at their school. Other than that, the alternative to make this CSE

concept better will be suggested so that the respective school can do some

betterment to the school. The alternative that suggested also useful to the students in

order to make them understand about what is the actual meaning of CSE concept

and why they must view and accept this concept positively to improve the learning or

education system in the nation.


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2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW

In many nations, good education systems are usually the main factor to the

level of the development of a country. Thus, good education system plays a vital role

in realizing the nation aim and target. The education system developments are

closely related to the country social, economic and political needs in order to make

an improvement to the nation (Aziah Ismail & Abdul Ghani Abdullah, 2011). Good

education systems are also important because it will help the country to build their

youngsters to help the nation expand. If the youngsters of the country did not have a

good education, the country might be did not have the future generations of the

leader to lead the country.

In Malaysia, the Ministry of Education has implemented the Main Plan of

Education Development [Pelan Induk Pembangunan Pendidikan (PIPP)] 2006-2010

on January 16th 2006. The cluster school concept which includes in Chapter 9 of this

plan can be seen as a step in developing the education system. “The plan has

outlined six strategic thrusts including the thrust of accelerating Excellence in

Educational Institutions of Malaysia. Based on this thrust, some excellent schools

were and will be selected and recognized as cluster schools of excellence (CSE),

cohort by cohort, and obtained some degree of autonomy to accelerate their

organizational excellence” (Aziah Ismail & Abdul Ghani Abdullah, 2011; Ministry of

Education, 2006). This action are also parallel to the 9th Malaysian Plan (RMK-9)

from 2006-2010 which stressed on the importance on education, training and lifelong

learning (Malaysia, 2006).

The CSE concept in Malaysia education system was aimed to the outstanding

school in this country and help the school to achieved world-class standards and

become internationally recognized (Aziah Ismail & Abdul Ghani Abdullah, 2011;

Ministry of Education, 2006a). The school that have been announced as CSE, the

Ministry of Education will give the autonomy in developing the school in their own

cluster (Utusan Malaysia, 2007). The school will get the fund, material and many

more to help the school success and achieved the aim of the concept. In order to

achieve the aim of CSE concept, the barrier are also great because not every

students and teachers are willing and accept this new concept to be implemented at

their school. The teachers and students might have some difficulties in realizing the


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aim of this concept because the administration of the school will be the manager of

the curriculum. The power of the District Education Office (PPD) and Department of

State Education (JPN) in managing the curriculum of the CSE will be minimized

because the Ministry of Education will give the autonomy to the particular school

(Utusan Malaysia, 2007).

This is the reason why some of the students and teachers did not accept the

CSE concept. The school administration will make their own rules and regulations,

and sometimes it will burden the teacher and students. The school might longer the

time of Learning and Teaching (P&P) process until 4 in the evening and this will give

a big burden and stress to teachers and students. Thus, the CSE concept that

implemented can bring advantages as well as disadvantages to the students and

teachers.

3.0 METHODOLOGY

3.1 The respondent

This research is focused on the perception from the teachers, students and

school staff and the respondents are chosen among them. The random sampling

style is used in this research. There are 44 respondents are among the students and

the rest are among the school staff and teachers. Out of 60 respondents, 37 of them

are female and the balance, which is 23, are among the male. This is because the

female population in the school are higher rather than male.


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3.2 Instrument

The research was conducted using three types of instruments, which is a set

of questionnaire, interview and secondary data. These instruments were used to

collect the data from the respondents in order to complete the research.

A set of questionnaire was distributed among the respondents which are the

teachers, school staff and students. These respondents need to answers the entire

question that included in the questionnaire set. There are 10 question over the entire

questionnaire, which is based from likert-scale question, multiple choice questions

and also open-ended question. The questionnaire was divided into 2 sections which

is section A and B. In section A is about their personal details and section B is about;

1) the knowledge about the topic, 2) their perception towards the topic, 3) and their

suggestions.

Before the actual questionnaire was distribute to the respondents, a pilot study was

conducted in order to check on the validity and reliability of the question used. This

study will help to identify vague question and wrong question. This study is also

conducted among the peers and classmates in college.

Interview is also conducted in order to collect the data from the respondent.

The main purpose of the interview is to get in depth the explanation about the

particular topic. The interviewee will share their opinion about the topic. The interview

conducted is semi-structured interview. Semi-structured interview is easy because

the interviewer can express their own idea in the middle of the interview rather than

structured interview which is following the actual script and formal.


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4.0 RESEARCH FINDINGS

Based on the study, these findings are obtained.

FIGURE 1: The number of the genders of the respondent.

Figure 1 above shows the percentage of the respondents based on gender. There

are 60 respondents involved in this study. 37 of them are male and the rest are

female. This study is conducted at school, as why female are more co-operative

compared to male.

FIGURE 2: The number of the respondents by age range.

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Q1

MALE

FEMALE

0

20

40

60

Q2

20-29

30-39

40+

13-19


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Based on Figure 2, the age range for 13-19 years old is the majority of the

respondent which are 44 people. This is because the majority of the respondents are

among the students. Meanwhile, 40+ years old is the second highest age range

which is 10 people followed by the age range from 30-39 years old which is 4 people

and the lowest is for the age range 20-29 years old is only 2 out of 60 respondents

FIGURE 3: The percentage of respondents by marital status.

The percentage in Figure 3 shows about the marital status of the respondents. The

figure shows that 73% which means 44 out of 60 respondents are single. Meanwhile,

25% of the respondents are married. It means, 15 of the respondent are already

married. It is only 2% or only 1 person from the respondents is widowed and there is

no one from the respondents are separated.

SINGLE73%

MARRIED25%

SEPERATED0%

WIDOWED2%


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FIGURE 4: The percentage that shows the understanding of respondents about

cluster school concept.

Based on the statistic on Figure 4, majority of the respondent which is 82% out of 60

respondents are did not know about the Cluster School concept before this research

was held. It means that 49 out of 60 respondents are not known about this concept.

While, 18% of the respondents, which is 11 respondents are already known about

the Cluster School concept before this research was held.

FIGURE 5: The number of respondents that knows about the concept.

18%

82%

YES

NO

0 10 20 30 40 50

Q5I DON'T KNOW AT ALL

A LITTLE BIT

I KNOW EVERYTHING


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Based from Figure 5, out of 60 respondents, 42 respondents know everything about

the Cluster School concept. Meanwhile, 15 of the respondents know a little bit about

the Cluster School concept and only 3 of the respondents do not know anything

about the Cluster School concept. Based from this result, researcher can conclude

that majority of the respondent know about this concept well.

FIGURE 6: The number of respondents that seen the changes or differences.

Based on the results that shown in Figure 6, most of the respondent, which is 47

respondent see the total changes and differences after this concept was

implemented to the particular school. While, 12 out of 60 respondents see the

changes and differences when this concept was implemented, but not totally and just

a little bit. But, only 1 of the respondent sees that there is nothing changes when the

concept is implemented.

Q6

Q6

YES, TOTALLY 47

NOT VERY MUCH 12

I SEE NOTHING 1


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FIGURE 7: The percentage of respondents that seen the types of changes and

differences.

Figure 7 shows that the statistics about the type of changes that can be seen after

the concept was implemented at the particular school. Many of the respondents,

which are 44%, see there are big changes and differences in the co-curricular

aspects meanwhile 24% of the respondents see the changes and differences in term

of facilities in the particular school. Teaching style and method are also can be seen

because 16% of the respondents said so and 15% of the respondent gives another

answer such as too many program and also rules and regulation. Only 1% of the

respondents see the changes in specialist teacher.

24%

16%

44%

1%

15%

FACILITIES

TEACHING STYLE/METHOD

CO-CURRICULAR

MORE SPECIALIST TEACHER

OTHERS


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FIGURE 8: The percentage of respondents about how they view about the concept.

The percentage in Figure 8 shows about the respondent view about the concept.

Majority of the respondent view the concept as good and 17% of the respondent did

not have any idea in viewing this Cluster School concept. Meanwhile, 10% of the

respondents view this concept as worst and only 3% of the respondents view this

concept as excellence. Based on the result, it can conclude that most of the

respondents only view this concept as good and not good enough to be excellence.

3%

70%

10%

17%

EXCELLENCE GOOD WORST I HAVE NO IDEA


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FIGURE 9: The number of respondents that agree or disagree about does the cluster

school concept affects the student’s academic performance positively.

Based on the Figure 9, 46 out of 60 respondents are agreeing that the Cluster School

concept will affects student’s academic performance positively and 3 of the

respondent strongly agree with the statement. While, 10 of the respondents are

disagree with then statement that the concept will affects student’s academic

performance positively. Only 1 respondent are totally disagree that the concept will

affect the student’s academic performance in positive way.

4.1 The suggestion from respondent on how to improve this concept.

Based on the survey conducted, majority of the respondents suggested that this

concept need to be improved because most of the regulations in the concept give

them a burden to carry on such as, prolonged of the teaching and learning time

because once the school have been announced as cluster school, they can changed

the rules and regulations depends on the school administration. Other than that, the

respondents also suggested that Ministry of Education should make a specific rules

and regulation for the cluster school to avoid the particular school to make their own

rules and regulations that can give a burden to them.

3

46

10

10

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

STRONGLY AGREE AGREE DISAGREE STRONGLY DISAGREE

Q9


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5.0 DISCUSSION

From the study, the finding shows that most of the respondent gives negative

perception towards this new education concept which is cluster school of excellence

(CSE) concept. Thus, this shows that even though this concept can bring a lot of

advantages, it also have some disadvantages.

The students also claimed that this concept give them a great burden to carry

on. After the concept is implemented to the school the school have the autonomy

from the Ministry of Education to manage their school administration on their own

and also will get the fund to help in developing the school (Utusan Malaysia, 2007).

This shows that any changes in school rules and regulation might bring a burden to

the students because the changes will be as simple as try and error.

Certain respondent among the teachers and school staff also claim that the

CSE concept sometimes also give a burden to them. The changes of the rules and

regulations of the school disturbing their jobs and also give them more work to do.

The extending of time of the learning and teaching process are the great burden for

them. The teachers need to teach their students from 730 am until 430 pm.

In conclusion, even though most of the respondents give negative perception

toward this concept, this concept still brings the advantages towards the school

staffs, teachers and students. Thus, the early hypothesis are approved but, based on

the findings, the results are more to the good side of this concept.


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6.0 CONCLUSION

This research investigated about the implications of cluster school concept

towards school staffs, teachers and students in SMKA Maahad Hamidiah, Kajang.

The primary data were collected by randomly distributing a set of questionnaire to 60

respondents, which is 44 among the students (whole class) and 16 among the

teachers and school staffs. As mentioned earlier in the introduction, the purpose of

this research was to discover about the cluster school concept as well as the impact

and effectiveness of the concept towards the school staffs, teachers and students of

SMKA Maahad Hamidiah.

The following conclusions can be drawn from the study. To begin with, this

study has shown that most of the respondents see the differences and changes to

the school after the concept are implemented to the school itself due to most of the

respondents are among the students that already stayed in the school for minimum 2

years. In addition, the big changes that can be seen in the school are the co-

curricular. These changes are related to the cluster of this school which is the cluster

of co-curricular (archery) which is one of the co-curricular activities in the school.

Other than that, the findings also shows that most of the respondents view this

concept as good due to many respondents claims that this concept need to be

improved. Lastly, most of the respondent are agree that the cluster school concept

affects their academic performances positively.

The results of this study indicate that most of the respondent gives a good

perception to this concept even though this concept still has the weakness. The early

hypothesis is also approved but the findings are more to the advantages. However,

these findings are only true for SMKA Maahad Hamidiah school staffs, teachers and

students and cannot be generalized to other cluster school students. The same study

needs to be conducted with students from other cluster school to see if there are any

similarities with the factors that will influence school staffs, teachers and students

perception towards the cluster school concept.


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REFERENCES

Norazman Abdul Majid, et. al, (2007). Academic Report Writing: From Writing to

Presentation, Pearson Prentice Hall, Malaysia. Second Edition.

Aziah Ismail (PhD), Abdul Ghani Abdullah (PhD). (2011). Cluster Schools for Diverse

Students’ Needs in Malaysia: A System View. Vol. 3 No. 2: E20.

Wahid Hashim, (2007). Sekolah Kluster Milik Rakyat. Malaysia: Utusan Malaysia.

http://www.moe.gov.my/?act=search&id=0&keyword=sekolah+kluster (25 October

2009).


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The Cluster School Concept Impact

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