Many of the earliest schools in Malayan Peninsula were founded in the Straits Settlements of Penang, Malacca and Singapore. The oldest English-language school in Malaya are as below:
- Penang Free School, Penang, 1816
- Malacca High School, 1826
- Saint Xavier's Institution, Penang, 1852
- King Edward VII School, Perak, 1883
- Anglo Chinese School, Selangor, 1893
Many traditionally English-language schools are considered quite prestigious. British historian such as Richard O. Winstedt worked to improve the education of the Malays and was instrumental in establishing the Sultan Idris Training College with the purpose of producing Malay teachers. Richard James Wilkinson helped established the Malay College Kuala Kangsar in 1905 which aimed to educate Malay elites.
Initially, the British colonial government did not provide for any Malay-language secondary school, forcing those who had studied in Malay during primary school to adjust to an English-language education should they have the opportunity to commence secondary education; colonial reports affirmed that the limits of Malay to only primary level education are intended "to make the son of the fisherman or peasant a more intelligent fisherman or peasant than his father had been". Many Malays failed to pursue additional education due to this issue. Despite complaints about this policy, the British Director of Education stated:
"It would be contrary to the considered policy of government to afford to a community, the great majority of whose members find congenial livelihood and independence in agricultural pursuits, more extended facilities for the learning of English which would be likely to have the effect of inducing them to abandon those pursuits."
Malay representatives in the Federal Council as well as the Legislative Council of Singapore responded vehemently, with one calling the British policy "a policy that trains the Malay boy how not to get employment" by excluding the Malays from learning in the "bread-earning language of Malaya". He remarked:
"In the fewest possible words, the Malay boy is told 'You have been trained to remain at the bottom, and there you must always remain!' Why, I ask, waste so much money to attain this end when without any vernacular school, and without any special effort, the Malay boy could himself accomplish this feat?"
To remedy this problem, the British established the Malay College Kuala Kangsar. However, it was mainly intended as a way to educate low-level civil servants and not a s a means to opening the doors of commerce to the Malays - the school was never intended to prepare students for entrance to higher institutions of education.
