Seventy percent of the 2,128 secondary schools ranked by the Education Ministry scored less than 60 percent in the school ranking system, which began under the Government Transformation Programme.

According to the School Improvement Programme report for 2010 obtained by Malaysiakini , out of 1,538 schools that scored less than 60 percent, 420 did not even garner 50 percent while eight are in the in red with marks lower than 40 percent.

Eight hundred and twenty-eight of the 1,538 lower ranking schools are located in rural areas, defined as areas where agriculture make up more than 60 percent of economic activity.

The bulk of the assessment points come from grade point averages of the previous year’s national examination results, while 30 percent comes from self-assessment using the Board of School Inspectors Malaysia standard.

azlan The schools are then grouped into seven Bands, with Band 1 (90 percent and above) being the highest and Band 7 (under 40 percent) the lowest, with exact scores of each school kept confidential. Schools that obtain 80-89 percent fall under Band 2, 70-79 percent under Band 3, 60-69 percent under Band 4 and so on.

Malaysiakini understands that the ranking is meant only for internal circulation and is not available for parents as the ministry wants to avoid naming and shaming low-performing schools.

However, it is believed that it is distributed to the schools as teachers and principals receive bonuses if their school ranks high on the list.

Low performing schools will receive coaching and assistance from the ministry while a school improvement toolkit allows all teachers to plan and track their improvement with the aid of teachers from other schools and district education officers.

Sabah and Perak top low-ranking list

Based on the 2010 ranking, the state which has the highest number of low-ranking schools is Perak, with 189 schools scoring under 60 percent, followed by Sabah with 179.

azlan Sabah, however, has two schools in the lowest Band, SMK Bugaya and SMK Bum-bum, both in Semporna.

Neighbouring Sarawak is home to 136 schools in the three lowest Bands, while SMK Santubon there scored below 40 percent.

More developed states like Selangor and Penang, too, have their share of low-ranking schools, with the former home to 135 schools which scored below 60 percent.

Penang has 84 schools in the three lowest Bands, with two of its schools failing to get even 40 percent.

The schools are, however, non-mainstream schools - a state-funded religious school, Madrasah Khairiah Ismaliah, and a special education school, SMK Pendidikan Khas Persekutuan.

Sixty-nine percent or 165 of Johor secondary schools score below 60 percent but the state does not have schools which fall in the red zone, unlike Kelantan which has three.

All three schools are state-funded religious stream schools, SMU (A) Alah, SMU (A) Darul Ulum and SMU (A) Tarbiah Islamiah.

Rural schools have the largest share of lower-ranking schools at 828 scoring below 60 percent.

Selangor, NS and Johor have top schools

On the flipside, Selangor has the most number of schools which scored more than 90 percent (Band 1) at ten schools, followed by Negri Sembilan and Johor with six each.

All but seven - including SMK Aminuddin Baki in Kuala Lumpur, SMK Sultanah Asmah in Kedah and SMKA Naim Lil-Barat in Kelantan - of the 53 schools who scored more than 90 percent nationwide are boarding schools.

sekolah menengah high school girls uniform Premier schools like Victoria Institution, Penang Free School and Convent Bukit Nanas did not make the cut and only managed to be in the second Band (80-89 percent), while St John’s Institution landed in Band 3 (70-79 percent).

Trends are less dismal among the 7,700 primary schools tested, with most scoring at least 65 percent.

Perak and Sabah yet again take the top spots on the list of primary schools with the lowest marks, at 13 primary schools each.

Three hundred and seventy-eight Sabah primary schools received marks below 55 percent, a far cry compared to the best-performing state in terms of primary schools, Johor, which has only 13 schools in the same boat.

Johor has 18 primary schools scoring 85 percent and above, putting it second behind Selangor, which has 20 primary schools in the same Band.