No discrepancy in SPM candidate numbers, says Lim

A TOTAL of 29,663 Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) candidates who were supposed to sit for the 2022 examinations were recorded as “absent”, says Deputy Education Minister Lim Hui Ying.

She added that they included private candidates who registered to sit for one or two subjects only, from the total of 388,832 SPM candidates recorded for the 2022 session.

She said here was no question of discrepancy between the figures and the number mentioned by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim during a dialogue with UKM students recently.

“What the Prime Minister announced is the total number of SPM candidates who were absent as a whole, including those who registered to sit for one subject in the examination.

“When the former education minister (Datuk Dr Radzi Jidin) said that 14,858 or 3.8% of SPM candidates were absent for the 2022 examination, they were actually candidates, including private candidates, registered to sit for six subjects,” she said.

Lim was replying to a supplementary question from Roslan Hashim (PN-Kulim Bandar Baru) on SPM candidates who did not sit for the exams last year.

On Wednesday, Radzi (PN-Putrajaya) told the House that Anwar had incorrectly used figures of those who were absent for the 2022 SPM examination.

Anwar earlier took a jab at Radzi’s performance as the education minister during the Perikatan Nasional administration, adding that 30,000 students were recorded to be absent during the 2022 SPM examination.

On another matter, Lim said the ministry was committed to assisting teachers in raising their digital skills for teaching and learning purposes.

She said the government had provided a one-off cash aid of RM100 as teaching aid incentives to 416,260 teachers involving an allocation of RM41.6mil last year.

“The assistance will continue this year with the provision of 50,000 laptops distributed to public schools to support teachers in line with the efforts of digitalisation.

“Based on the ministry’s records until May 31, a total of 1,789 digital or ICT-related training programmes have been conducted for teachers,” she told Datuk Seri Dr Wee Jeck Seng (BN-Tanjung Piai).

Lim was asked to list the continued assistance that will be provided for teachers who have to conduct both physical and online learning sessions due to the absence of students following the Covid-19 pandemic.