PREFERENTIAL POLICIES AND SECONDARY-SCHOOL ATTAINMENT IN PENINSULAR MALAYSIA

This article examines the effects of Malaysia's preferential education al policies on secondary school attainment for the country's three eth nic groups and investigates trends in gender and socioeconomic differe nces within each ethnic group. Data from the Second Malaysian Family L ife Survey were used to analyze the odds of secondary school attainmen t, given primary school completion, for birth cohorts born between 194 0 and 1969. Over time, Malays were increasingly more likely to attain secondary school than were non-Malays. Among Malays, gender and socioe conomic differences narrowed over time, but among non-Malays, they did not narrow and in some cases were exacerbated. The findings support a social structural, rather than a cultural, explanation of ethnic diff erences in educational attainment.