“Stepping Up in Harmony: Achieving Cluster School Excellence (CSE) Status for Non-CSE Malaysian Secondary Schools”

Malaysian Education Development Master Plan (EDMP) 2006-2010 aims to provide quality education for all children and produce quality human capital for the nation. To achieve these aims, the Ministry of Education has introduced the cluster schools of excellence (CSE) concept. Since its establishment in 2006, cluster schools are brands given to schools in Malaysia which have been identified as being excellent within their clusters in management and students excellence. Management excellence incorporates the leadership and administrative capability of the Principal and staff of the school while students’ excellence embraces the outstanding merit of the students both in academic and co-curricular activities. In fact in many of such CSE schools, niche areas in certain co-curricular activities are developed. Of date, only 1 per cent of Malaysian schools have been identified as CSE. The percentage of CSE schools can be increased if more non-CSE secondary schools are groomed to meet the CSE requirements. For the purpose of this study, the researchers reviewed journal articles on cluster schools and provide an insight of some of the challenges and success stories of CSE. The paper proposes how non-CSE secondary schools should step up in harmony to be at par with CSE secondary schools. The research identified that non-CSE secondary schools have to overcome three key areas of challenges, namely, program, participation and support to achieve the CSE status.