which "kolej islam" are you talking about?

right, since you know your children will not get into MARA schools, and you have listed down  cons to regular SMK, then go ahead and enrol them into chinese schools. or better yet, send them to private/international schools since their tertiary studies will be in the states. but in my personal opinion, you just cant beat the fun environment you get from normal SMK. it mixes all races together and teaches kids to get along. but since you only care bout quality and standard of teaching alone, then perhaps you should not consider normal SMK.