Malaysia Introduction Educational development and reform in Malaysia have always been characterized by the government’s efforts to adapt education to national development needs. The essence of educational development and reformation, as in other developing countries, has always been (and is) curriculum development, to provide education for human resource development to meet the needs of the social, economic and political development of the country. Moral and values education has always been recognized and acknowledged in the Malaysian school curriculum. It dates back to the time of the British colonial government, when missionary work was one of the reasons for providing education for the people. The curriculum had included Scripture as one of the subjects at the secondary level, and ethics for the non-Christian pupils. Mukherjee (1986, p. 151) states that there were “weekly slots on ‘ethics’ (given) to their non- Christian pupils…with liberal extracts from the Bible accompanied by frequent exhortations to ‘be good’”. Following the English school tradition then, the National School System included Islamic Religious Education, then known as Agama (Religion) in the curriculum for the Muslim pupils. For the non-Muslim students, some form of moral education was given in place of Agama. More fervor is given to values education in the present curriculum. The Kurikulum Baru Sekolah Rendah (KBSR), that is the New Primary School Curriculum, and the Kurikulum Bersepadu Sekolah Menengah (KBSM), or the Integrated Secondary School Curriculum, which have completed their first cycle recently, emphasize the teaching of values in order to enhance quality individual development, as well as creating Malaysian citizens of the future, through education. This paper will briefly outline educational development from the time of independence, followed by a discussion on the current educational reforms beginning in 1980s. Highlights will be made on the development of values education in the curriculum, particularly the importance given to it in the new curriculum being implemented.Journal of Educational This paper is an adapted and improved version of a paper, “Educational development inAdministration, Malaysia: the dilemma of values education”