Educational aspirations of Malay youths from low-income families in Singapore

Abstract

Education is important for the production of human capital and also as a means of social mobility. This paper examines the educational aspirations of Malay youths in comparison with other youths in Singapore. Descriptive analysis and ordinal regression analysis were applied to data from the 2010 National Youth Survey. The findings reveal that Malay youths have lower educational aspirations than youths from other ethnicities. The findings have important implications for social work and social policy, especially since the Malays' educationally and socioeconomically marginal position has been identified as an area of national concern.

Keywords:

• educational aspirations
• Singapore
• Malays
• education
• youths

Acknowledgement

We thank the National Youth Council for permission to use the National Youth Survey 2010 for this study.

Notes

^1. Most Malays are Muslims.