KOTA BHARU: Kelantan Education Department officers will go to the field and to students' homes to ensure no school dropouts, including among the Orang Asli community.
Its director, Datuk Mohd Zamri Abdul Aziz, said that JPN will take action through the district education office and the school if students fail to attend school one week after the 2024/2025 school term starts on Sunday (March 10).
He said that the move was to obtain accurate information related to student absenteeism, which would contribute to the problem of student dropouts in the state.
"We have instructed the school to monitor student absences daily, even though we have a system to update. It's just that usually, in the first week of school, we look at the numbers reported in the previous year.
"Perhaps, if they don't show up for a day, they could have had health problems or something like that," he said after conducting a check at Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Ismail Petra 1, here, on Sunday.
Mohd Zamri said that if a student does not attend school for a week, the school will visit the student's residence.
Commenting further, he said that, last year, the department had detected 22 dropout students (from both primary and secondary schools) and also dropouts among the Orang Asli community, namely 14 students from SK Balar and another five students from Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Sri Wangi.
He said that all of them would be given an explanation of the need to attend school through discussions with the education department's representatives, local leaders, tok batin (Orang Asli village heads), and the Orang Asli Development Department (Jakoa).
"Often, the cause of dropout among Orang Asli students is their customary problems, safety factors, and the weather.
"However, most live in dormitories, thus reducing the dropout problem. We hope that with this effort, the dropout problem among students in this state, including Orang Asli students, can be reduced," he said.
He also expressed hope for zero dropout issues, which is in line with the Education Ministry's aspiration to ensure that student dropouts do not continue to be a concern in this country. – Bernama
