Although the Razak Report formally integrated Chinese primary schools into the education system, the position of middle schools remained ambiguous. Around 1957, when Malaya became independent, the government was consistently pushing for Chinese middle schools to be reorganized into a national secondary school system with English as the medium of instruction. Schools that refused to change would be excluded from government funding, while government exams would all be set in English or Malay.
1957 年馬來西亞獨立前後，政府一直希望將華文中學改制為以英文為主要教學語文的「國民型中學」，同時將拒絕改制的學校排除在國家教育體制外（即「獨中」），不得享有國家津貼，而且政府會考，一律以英文和馬來文出題。