Chinese independent high school

The number of Chinese independent high schools differed among sources, ranging from 60 to 63, due to the ambiguous status of SM Chong Hwa Kuantan and whether branch campuses count as separate schools.

As such, their students remain largely Chinese to this day even though the school themselves are open to people of all races and backgrounds.

While the medium language for most subjects is switched to English as according to the proposal, the teaching and learning of Mandarin remained compulsory in these schools, with most of them dedicating at least one seventh to one fifth of their teaching time per week to Mandarin studies.

Their numbers continued to grow until a period when the political situation in Malaysia made it impossible to set up additional independent Chinese high schools.

In the year, the British Crown Colony who were then in control of Sarawak proposed that the 18 high schools using Chinese as the medium of teaching be converted into using English.

In 1961, a letter was sent to all of the Chinese-medium high schools demanding them to convert teaching of all subjects into English before 1 April 1962.

A few schools offer an additional year in senior middle, catering to students taking the government's Sijil Tinggi Pelajaran Malaysia (STPM, equivalent to A-level).

The Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) (Chinese: 华文独立中学统一考试; pinyin: huá wén dú lì zhōng xué tǒng yī kǎo shì) is a standardised test for Chinese independent high school students organised by the UCSCAM since 1975.

The UEC-SML is recognised as a qualification for entrance into many tertiary educational institutions around the world, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Japan, Singapore, Australia, Canada and many others.

To quote the book, "The latter (Mahathir) did not mince his words but told the Dong Jiao Zong leaders that UEC had better not be held or else ...

This drew protests and caused the then Minister of Higher Education Dr Shafie Salleh exempted UEC students from this requirement.

In some schools, certain subjects at the senior middle levels (the sciences, mathematics, bookkeeping, accounting and commerce) are taught using English teaching materials and exam papers for those subjects are set in English, but teachers may instruct and explain in Mandarin.

For schools that prepare students to take national exams (PT3, SPM and STPM) alongside the UEC, Bahasa Malaysia teaching materials in conjunction with the national curriculum are used in preparatory classes for those exams.