KUALA LUMPUR – The Education Ministry expects to table a bill in Parliament next year to make secondary school education compulsory, deputy minister Wong Kah Woh said.
The bill, to amend the Education Act 1996 where currently only primary education is compulsory, is aimed at reducing the school dropout rate.
Wong said the ministry was finalising the amendment bill before submitting it to the Attorney-General’s Chambers for review and legal commentary.
“This amendment is subsequent to the agreement made in principle by the cabinet in June 2024,” Bernama reported Wong saying in the Dewan Negara’s oral question-and-answer session today.
The deputy minister was replying to Senator Datuk R. Nelson, who asked about the status of the policy on compulsory secondary school education.
In reply to Nelson’s supplementary question about primary school dropout rates, Wong said as of December 31 last year, the enrolment rate for primary school pupils was 99.11%.
Compulsory secondary school education was mooted by the present government in March last year, when Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek said the government was committed to ensuring no student dropouts at both the primary and secondary levels.
The Education Act currently states education is only compulsory up to Year 6, and provides for penalties of not more than RM5,000 or jail not exceeding six months, or both, on parents who fail to ensure their children’s attendance.
In October last year, then deputy minister Lim Hui Ying said the proposal would ensure that schoolchildren complete the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia.
In May this year, Wong said that the dropout rate at secondary school level had decreased to 0.83%, from 0.99% the previous year. – July 24, 2024