School redesign for fostering multiculturalism in Malaysia: Augmenting the ‘Vision School’

The “Vision School” was a school redesign established to foster racial coexistence and solidarity among students in Malaysia. It would house the three major vernacular elementary schools (Malay, Chinese, and Tamil) in the same compound and share common physical facilities and jointly organize select school events. A case study of three Vision Schools revealed that the idea, although, conceived for the purpose of creating a sense of multiculturalism among the students, has been allowed to fail for the lack of coordination and integration of resources. A lingering question in the study was whether the vision school could have been a success story. Based on the facts on the ground, it is believed that it could have been shaped up as a model in multicultural education. The authors examined the missing aspects of the dynamics of the vision school and recommended an augmentation to the projected model.