KOTA KINABALU: Sabah wants to know why 5,686 students failed to turn up for their SPM 2022 examination, says Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor.
Describing it as worrying and a cause for concern, the Chief Minister said that only 34,461 out of the 40,147 students who registered for the exam turned up.
“This issue needs serious attention because SPM is an important exam for the future of our children as it is crucial for them to continue their education to institutions of higher learning.
“Education is important for all and it’s a right for them,” he said when presenting state scholarships to 40 top SPM students at the 34th Sabah Scholarship Awards by Yayasan Sabah yesterday.
Hajiji said the state Education Department must identify the reasons these students skipped such an important examination.
Although Sabah saw an increase of 0.13% in the national average grade (GPN) from 5.35 points in 2021 to 5.22 points last year, he said it was still way behind the national GPN of 4.74.
“The gap between urban and rural students in Sabah also widened from 0.53 points in 2021 to 0.61 points in 2022.
“It should be examined in detail to identify the causes of the weaknesses that exist,” he added.
Sabah Education Department director Raisin Saidin, who also attended the event, later told reporters it would look into the matter regarding absent SPM candidates.
“There are several possible reasons some students missed their examination such as feeling ashamed to turn up for it after getting pregnant.
“In other cases, some students got married while some were just not interested in sitting for the exam,” he said.
A recent report by the Education Ministry revealed that almost 30,000 students nationwide did not sit for the SPM 2022 exam and about 10,000 of them had actually registered to re-sit it.
