TAIPING – Intervention measures have been used continuously to deal with the dropout of Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) candidates.
Deputy Education Minister Wong Kah Woh said the move is more persuasive to create awareness of the importance and advantages of sitting for the examination.
“Basically, we have conducted this intervention step before the candidates sit for SPM. This includes giving advice and counselling sessions to make them aware of its importance.
“This effort has shown results where the number of candidates who did not sit the exam has been successfully reduced by 1.2% compared to last year (SPM 2022),” he said when met after officiating the closing of the Malaysia International Muay Championship (Mimac) here last night.
On May 27, Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek confirmed that the ministry will carry out intervention steps to detect dropout candidates and allow them to register for SPM again.
Recently, 10,160 out of 383,685 new SPM 2023 candidates were reported to be absent from the exams.
Meanwhile, Wong said that he believes the intervention measures can also reduce the dropout problem on a larger scale if they receive full cooperation from all parties, including parents.
“It’s not just the government – we all need to foster a phenomenon to encourage children to sit for this exam. If this happens, I’m sure it will be the direction to overcome this dropout issue,” he said.
When asked about the factors that caused the high dropout rate, he acknowledged the influence of social media as one of the main causes of the problem. – June 3, 2024