Education Ministry committed to ensuring 11 years of mandatory schooling for students

PETALING JAYA: The Education Ministry remains committed to making it mandatory for students to undergo 11 years of schooling, says Lim Hui Ying.

“Under the present system, it is only mandatory for children to undergo six years of schooling, which is until Year Six at primary school,” the Deputy Education Minister said.

“The plan to make it 11 years of mandatory schooling, or until Form Five at secondary school, will ensure that students get sufficient education.

“This is part of the new policies and plans that the ministry plans to roll out over the next few years. It is also an intervention to address the issue of dropouts.”

Lim said this on Wednesday (June 14) during a visit to SMK Seksyen 4 Bandar Kinrara, Puchong, as part of the Education Ministry’s Education Tour to the Kinrara state constituency in Selangor.

She also announced that funds totalling RM600,000 would be allocated to five schools in Kinrara for maintenance and repair works.

The breakdown of the funds, which come from the ministry’s Site Visit Allocation, are as follows: RM200,000 for SMK Seksyen 4 Bandar Kinrara and RM100,000 each for SJK(T) Ladang Kinrara, SMK Bandar Puchong Jaya A, SK Puchong and SJK(C) Kheng Chee.

It was previously reported in March 2023 that the Education Ministry had submitted a draft proposal to the Attorney General's Chambers to make secondary school education compulsory.

Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek said the move was the ministry’s commitment to ensure no student dropouts at both primary and secondary levels.

Speaking during a question-and-answer session at Parliament, she said that the present Education Policy states that under the Education Act 1996, education is only compulsory up to Year Six.

She added that the ministry remains committed and has regularly raised and publicised the matter.