Education
01
One teacher for every 12 students.
The Ministry of Education counted 4.82 million students, 417.5 thousand teachers and 10,238 government schools in 2025 — read live from the official open-data API. What the system holds, how its staffing is spread, and who makes it to the end.
Students · 2025
4.82M
enrolled in government primary and secondary schools
Teachers
417.5k
headcount across both stages, non-classroom roles included
Schools
10,238
government schools — private schools are not in this count
Students per teacher
11.5
computed: 11.6 at primary, 11.4 at secondary
Official latest2025— the latest open release. The Ministry's school statistics reach the catalogue well behind the school calendar (last refreshed 2026-08-03); the page refetches daily and will pick up a newer year the day it is published.
Ministry of Education (MOE) — enrolment_school_district, teachers_district, schools_district & completion_school_state (annual school statistics), via the data.gov.my open API · retrieved 2026-10-12 09:42 UTC
Government primary and secondary schools, 2025 — the latest open release (series 2017–2025). Students-per-teacher figures are computed by dividing enrolment by teacher headcount; teachers include non-classroom roles, so a ratio is not a class size. Completion ratios compare completers to the official-age population and can exceed 100%.
Students per teacher
02
Same system, sixteen different loads.
Divide each state's enrolment by its teacher headcount and the spread runs from 9.5 students per teacher in Perak to 15.5 in Putrajaya. A staffing ratio, not a report card — it says how thinly teachers are spread, not how well anyone teaches.
| State / territory | Students | Schools | Students per teacher |
|---|---|---|---|
| Putrajaya | 39,260 | 27 | 15.5 |
| Selangor | 940,300 | 945 | 15.1 |
| Kuala Lumpur | 224,615 | 290 | 13.1 |
| Labuan | 17,934 | 28 | 12.4 |
| Johor | 581,184 | 1,195 | 11.9 |
| Penang | 225,367 | 396 | 11.7 |
| Sabah | 503,379 | 1,298 | 11.5 |
| Negeri Sembilan | 198,828 | 479 | 11.3 |
| Melaka | 153,910 | 318 | 11.1 |
| Kedah | 332,307 | 752 | 11.0 |
| Terengganu | 242,877 | 506 | 10.9 |
| Kelantan | 291,322 | 595 | 10.3 |
| Pahang | 260,540 | 740 | 10.2 |
| Sarawak | 404,953 | 1,460 | 9.7 |
| Perlis | 45,440 | 104 | 9.7 |
| Perak | 356,380 | 1,105 | 9.5 |
Primary and secondary combined, both sexes, government schools, 2025. The ratio divides enrolment by teacher headcount; teachers include non-classroom roles.
The black tick marks the national ratio, 11.5 students per teacher.
Who finishes
03
99.2% finish primary school.
Of children at the official age for each stage, 99.2% complete primary, but by upper secondary the figure is 1.7 points lower, at 97.5%. The widest sex gap of the three stages is at primary, where girls run 2.3 points ahead of boys. Figures are 2025, the latest in the open series.
Primary
99.2%
girls 100.3% · boys 98.0%
Lower secondary
98.0%
girls 98.5% · boys 97.5%
Upper secondary
97.5%
girls 98.4% · boys 96.6%
Why some read over 100%Completion ratios compare everyone finishing a stage with the population at the official age for it, so students finishing late or early can push a figure past 100. Across states, primary completion runs from 92.4% in Kuala Lumpur to 108.4% in Putrajaya; upper secondary from 96.3% in Sarawak to 100.5% in Putrajaya.
Did you know
471 students to a school, on average.
4.82 million students across 10,238 government primary and secondary schools in 2025. A national mean over systems of very different sizes — the district files behind this page go finer.
Computed from Ministry of Education datasets via data.gov.my
Girls' primary completion runs 2.3 points ahead of boys'.
100.3% of girls against 98.0% of boys, 2025. The girls' figure tops 100 because completion counts everyone finishing the stage against the official-age population — late finishers included, not more graduates than children.
Computed from Ministry of Education datasets via data.gov.my
Perak has the lowest ratio: 9.5 students per teacher.
Against 11.5 nationally and 15.5 in Putrajaya. A low ratio means more teachers per enrolled student — it says nothing, by itself, about what happens in the room.
Computed from Ministry of Education datasets via data.gov.my
Deep data
03.3
What a staffing ratio cannot see.
Every figure on this page is arithmetic on four Ministry of Education tables — enrolment, teachers, schools and completion. The arithmetic is honest; the reader needs to know what those tables do and do not count.
Vintage
2025
the latest open release; the annual series runs 2017–2025
Stages
2
primary and secondary; post-secondary and tertiary rows exist but are not summed here
Geography
16
states and federal territories, each linked to its state page
Data as of
2025
catalogue last refreshed 2026-08-03
A ratio is not a class size
The teacher table is a headcount, and headcounts include heads of school, counsellors, special-education and other non-classroom roles. Eleven students per teacher does not mean eleven children in a room — actual class sizes run larger.
How completion tops 100%
Completion divides everyone finishing a stage — whatever their age — by the population at the official age for that stage. A cohort with many late finishers can therefore read above 100%. It measures throughput, not a literal share of children.
Government schools only
The school counts carry two type values: Sekolah Rendah Kerajaan and Sekolah Menengah Kerajaan — government primary and secondary schools (a public-university row, IPTA, is excluded). Private, international and other independent schools do not appear, so every ratio here describes the public system.
Ministry of Education (MOE) — enrolment_school_district, teachers_district, schools_district & completion_school_state (annual school statistics), via the data.gov.my open API · retrieved 2026-10-12 09:42 UTC
Government primary and secondary schools, 2025 — the latest open release (series 2017–2025). Students-per-teacher figures are computed by dividing enrolment by teacher headcount; teachers include non-classroom roles, so a ratio is not a class size. Completion ratios compare completers to the official-age population and can exceed 100%.
Schooling sits between two other shelves: the children come from Population — the pyramid's base decides tomorrow's enrolment — and the teachers and schools are paid for by Government.