RESOURCES HUB

The question

Recently, a member of MEPS asked a fundamental, common question for Educational Psychologist in Malaysia. It sparked a series of discussion on the professional identity of Educational Psychologist in Malaysia.

The bitter truth is, Educational Psychology, despite being a essential psychology specialisation recognised across established psychology associations across the world including APA and BPS – is in its infancy stage in Malaysia.

We have established programs of MEd Educational Psychology in several top tier Malaysian universities including (in no particular order), UM, UPM, UKM, UTM and USM. These programs are parked under the Faculty of Education and offers postgraduate qualifications in Educational Psychology based on three main programs – coursework, mixed mode and research.

At the current state, these programs focus primarily on the academia and research side of Educational Psychology with insufficient emphasis on the practical and clinical side of Educational Psychology. This creates a gap in knowledge and expertise where we have qualified professionals with insufficient or non-existent practical experience. The unfortunate down part of this is the lack of bridging between academia and practice leading to subquality delivery of practices and wasted potential of the postgraduate qualifications and expertise.

As MEPS, we are in the process of defining and establishing a professional identity and standard code of practice for Educational Psychologist in Malaysia.

It’s a complicated situation so let me try to answer to the best of my knowledge

Wider context

First of all, there is still no official distinction of psychologists under the government system. The only specialised psychology position is pegawai psikologi which allows anyone with a bachelor's in psychology to serve as one.

Clinical Psychology, Occupational Therapy and Speech Therapy are somewhat parked under the Ministry of Health, but they have recently successfully passed the Allied Health Act after I believe a decade of efforts and there is official registration for them now under the act. Note that this does not equate to a licensing or regulatory system

For counsellors, they are registered under Lembaga Kaunselling and this has been in place for a long time.

Educational Psychology – the challenges and efforts

Unfortunately, our situation as Educational Psychologist is much more complicated and in the infant stage.

The best definition (most official) definition of Ed Psych in Msia is according to MQA (which is also MEPS's criteria for full membership). This standard is that a person must have a bachelor's degree in psychology and a postgraduate degree in Educational Psychology to be an Educational Psychologist

There is currently no official registry for Educational Psychologist in Malaysia and this is a long-term plan for MEPS to work towards. We wished we have better progress and news on this, but this is a tedious and effortful progress to work with various stakeholders including gov agencies, ministries, unis and etc to come up with the best way forward.

To share, under Jabatan Pendidikan Negeri Selangor (JPNS), there is currently officially only one Educational Psychologist for the whole of Selangor, additionally, we are aware of some Educational Psychologist under the HQ side of MOE in Putrajaya

One way that MEPS is pushing for registration of educational psychologist is through our collaboration with Jabatan Pendidikan Negeri Selangor and various universities offer standardized services and training. The ultimate goal is to set up a clinical supervision program for the MEd Educational Psychology in Msia. This is still a work in progress.

We appreciate any input or support from all MEPS members in this process. As we are a very new organisation. We still have a long way to go, and I believe our unity in this as Educational Psychologist will facilitate this process