STEM Education in Malaysia: A Systematic Review of Learning Outcomes, Student Engagement, and Workforce Readiness in the Era of Industry 4.0

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education has emerged as a vital concern for countries aspiring to develop innovation systems and move towards a sustainable, knowledge-based economy. In Malaysia, STEM has become a national priority as highlighted through documented policy reform measures; specifically through the Malaysian Education Development Plan 2013–2025 (PPPM) and the National Policy on Science, Technology and Innovation 2021–2030. Despite the existence of these frameworks and national commitments to STEM education initiatives, there have been declines in student enrolment in pure STEM subjects/programmes and inconsistent results in STEM-related learning outcomes, leading to challenges in Malaysia having a highly competitive/technology-driven workforce. This systematic review applies a meta-analysis to examine the evidence base of STEM education from the perspective of enhancing higher-order-thinking skills including: academic performance; critical thinking; creativity; computational thinking; and career readiness specifically in the context of Malaysia. The results of this systematic review indicate moderate overall effect sizes (d ≈ 0.42–0.59), demonstrating meaningful gains in students’ higher-order-thinking skills, while there has also been inconsistent evidence resulting in a lack of creativity improvement. Further, studies conducted on STEM programme participation conducted within Malaysia found that ~78% of students reported they became interested in pursuing a STEM-related career after participating in a STEM programme; however, this reported increase in interest does not correlate with Malaysia's national enrolment in pure science streams, which is presently at 15.2% (well below the policy target of 60%). Therefore, the findings of this systematic review demonstrate that while there is significant potential for STEM education to positively impact on student participation in STEM streams, the ultimate outcome of STEM initiatives will continue to be impacted by systemic issues, which includes, among other things, exam-driven pedagogy; teachers' preparation for teaching; resource inequity; and socio-cultural barriers to student motivation. This systematic review of the literature argues that the challenge affecting participation in Malaysia’s STEM workforce is not limited to students' abilities, but is driven by a systemic failure of pedagogy, socio-cultural factors and inequalities in resource allocation. This paper proposes a contextualised framework for a STEM educational ecosystem to inform policy and improve Malaysia’s capacity to successfully prepare for the Industry 4.0 revolution and sustain long-term economic growth.