Friday–Saturday weekend in Johor, Kedah, Kelantan, Terengganu (rest Sunday–Thursday).


Primary school is compulsory. Here, the first split occurs: students attend either National Schools (SK) where the medium of instruction is Bahasa Malaysia, or National-type Schools (SJK) where instruction is in Mandarin (SJKC) or Tamil (SJKT). This trilingual stream is a defining feature of Malaysian education.

At the end of Year 6, students sit for the Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR – Primary School Achievement Test), although this exam has recently been de-emphasized in favor of school-based assessments.

The government is aggressively promoting TVET (Technical and Vocational Education and Training) to shed the stigma that vocational school is for "failures." New TVET colleges offer robotics, welding, and culinary arts to meet industry 4.0 demands.