Education
According to government statistics, Kuala Lumpur has a literacy rate of 97.5% in 2000, the highest rate in any state or territory in Malaysia. In Malaysia, Malay is the language of instruction for most subjects while English is a compulsory subject and is used as the language of instruction for mathematics and the natural sciences. There are also schools which provide Mandarin and Tamil as languages of instruction for certain subjects.
In Kuala Lumpur alone, there are 13 tertiary education institutions, 79 high schools, 155 elementary schools and 136 kindergartens.
There are several notable institutions located in the city which have existed for more than 100 years, such as Bukit Bintang Girls' School (1893–2000, when shifted to Taman Shamelin Perkasa in Cheras and renamed SMK Seri Bintang Utara), Victoria Institution (1893); Methodist Girls' School (1896); Methodist Boys' School (1897); Convent Bukit Nanas (1899) and St. John's Institution (1904).
Kuala Lumpur is home to the University of Malaya. Established in 1949, it is the oldest university in Malaysia, and one of the oldest in the region. It is also the most prestigious tertiary institution in Malaysia, having been ranked first among the universities in Malaysia in the 2004 Times Higher Education (THES) international rankings. In recent years, the number of international students at University of Malaya has risen, a result of increasing efforts made to attract more international students.
Other universities located in Kuala Lumpur include International Islamic University Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman University, UCSI University, International Medical University, Open University Malaysia, Universiti Kuala Lumpur, Wawasan Open University and the branch campus of the National University of Malaysia and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. In the metropolitan state of Selangor which surrounds KL to form Greater Kuala Lumpur, there are also various universities, most notably the branch campuses of University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus located in Semenyih and Monash University Malaysia Campus in Sunway. The National Defence University of Malaysia is located at Sungai Besi Army Base, at the southern part of central Kuala Lumpur. It was established to be a major centre for military and defence technology studies. This institution covers studies in the field of army, navy, and air force.
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Famous quotes containing the word education:
“There are words in that letter to his wife, respecting the education of his daughters, which deserve to be framed and hung over every mantelpiece in the land. Compare this earnest wisdom with that of Poor Richard.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I would urge that the yeast of education is the idea of excellence, and the idea of excellence comprises as many forms as there are individuals, each of whom develops his own image of excellence. The school must have as one of its principal functions the nurturing of images of excellence.”
—Jerome S. Bruner (20th century)
“Meantime the education of the general mind never stops. The reveries of the true and simple are prophetic. What the tender poetic youth dreams, and prays, and paints today, but shuns the ridicule of saying aloud, shall presently be the resolutions of public bodies, then shall be carried as grievance and bill of rights through conflict and war, and then shall be triumphant law and establishment for a hundred years, until it gives place, in turn, to new prayers and pictures.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)