Social interaction among multiethnic pupils in Malaysian vision schools

This study explores the patterns of friendship and social interaction amongmultiethnic pupils in a Malaysian Vision School environment. The Vision School is a school environment which consists of two or three primary schools of different streamsthat is, a National School, a National Type Chinese School and a National Type Tamil School which are placed in one area and share common facilities. The aim is to nurture unity and integration among pupils regardless of race, religion and background. The research sample consists of 89 pupils of a Vision School located in Kedah, Malaysia. They comprise 60 pupils from a National School and 29 pupils from a National Type Tamil School. Guided questionnaires were used to obtain quantitative data from the pupils. The findings indicate that a majority of the pupils in the Vision School environment were fonder of displaying friendship and interaction with friends from the same ethnic group rather than those from other ethnicities