Main reason is students’ lack of interest in studying, says deputy minister

THERE were about 70,000 secondary students who dropped out from schools from 2006 to 2010.

Education Deputy Minister Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong said the figure was derived after deducting the number of students who had enrolled in other type of schools.

“The ministry recorded about 220,000 students who dropped out from schools during the period, we cannot define these as dropouts per se as some had enrolled with other type of schools,” he told Anthony Loke (DAP-Rasah) during Question Time.

Dr Wee said the 220,000 dropouts represented 9.42% of the 2.3 million students enrolled in secondary schools throughout the country.

He stressed that a large number of these dropouts had continued their studies in private, religious, Chinese Independent and international schools.

During the period, he revealed that there were 16,422 students who enrolled with the private schools, 69,842 with Chinese Independent schools, 6,479 with religious schools and some 8,000 with international schools.

“We also have to consider that some 56,000 students enrolled with state-run religious schools.

“Coupled with these factors, we only had dropouts of about 70,000 students during the period,” he said.

During the same period, 1.32% of primary school pupils had dropped out with 0.7% from national schools, 4.24% from Chinese national type schools and 1.41% from Tamil national type schools.

He said the main reason for the dropouts was students’ lack of interest in studying.

To address the dropout issue, Dr Wee said there was a need to create a vibrant syllabus to attract low performing students to attend school.

He said it was the Government’s intention to provide free education for all students and to ensure everyone completed at least up to Form Five level.