A/HRC/44/40/Add.3 Paragraph 43 The quality of education is also concerning. As of 2015, 12 years of school in Malaysia was the equivalent of just nine years when adjusted for quality. The country’s scores rank in the 25th percentile of the OECD average for reading and mathematics. Comments from the Government of Malaysia: • The quality of education is derived from harmonize test scores from major international student achievement testing programs. These are combined into a measure of expected learning‐adjusted years of school, using the conversion metric proposed in the 2018 World Development Report. • The quality of education in Malaysia is showing improvement since Malaysia first took part in Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) in 1999 and Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2009. Malaysia aims to further improve its education performance. However, the outcomes of all the initiatives implemented by the government can only be measured and known after a certain period of implementation. Malaysia hopes to excel in the TIMSS and PISA performance by 2025. Malaysia’s performance in the most current cycle of these international studies, PISA 2018 and TIMSS 2019 will only be published in December 2019 and in November 2020. Based on various improvement initiatives in curriculum, teaching and learning, Malaysia is expected to achieve further improvement in its performance. • The Malaysia Education Blueprint (Blueprint) 2013-2025 has determined 11 shifts to achieve the vision of raising the level of the education system into the 21st century. Shift 1 demands that the Ministry provides access to quality education that is comparable to international standards; and subsequently made available to all students. • Shift 1 focuses on the aspect of quality, which is directed towards the need to improve the learning standards of Mathematics and Science, the proficiency of languages in line with international standards and improve the quality of education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). • To achieve this, the Ministry needs to provide teachers with the ability to create a conducive learning environment and focus on the 21 st century learning (PAK21). The conventional teaching methods need to be changed to allow for a more creative and dynamic teaching and learning approach that is based on the content of the subject to accommodate the developing minds of the students. • The shift from teacher-centred teaching method to student-centred learning method in the 21st century education presents new challenges to teachers and school leaders. Some of these challenges include learning that leads to higher order thinking skills (HOTS), managing more dynamic learning space, and utilizing various teaching aids and technology-based resources to implement effective teaching and learning processes, relevant to the current needs of the students. As such, teachers have to continuously improve their level of professionalism in terms of knowledge and pedagogy in order to remain relevant to the current and future needs. Continuous training is also provided to school leaderships to ensure that the management and administration of the school are strengthened to support the needs of teachers and students. • The Ministry also continues to encourage parents and communities to be directly involved in supporting schools to provide quality education to their children. The Ministry needs to implement major changes to ensure the country’s education system is ranked among the best in the world. In order to further strengthen the quality of education, the initiatives undertaken in 2017 were as follows: (i) Integrating Higher Order Thinking Skills in 21st Century Learning (ii) Strengthening Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Education (iii) Expanding the Literacy and Numeracy Screening Programme (LINUS2.0) (iv) Upholding Bahasa Melayu Education (v) Implementing the English Language Programme 21