Working hard: Fadhlina giving her assurance that her ministry is making efforts to alleviate learning disability issues. — Bernama
KUALA LUMPUR: Over 400,000 schoolchildren nationwide have learning difficulties, says Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek.
She said out of the total of 435,838 pupils facing such difficulties, 280,985 were primary school students between Year One and Six who have yet to master the Bahasa Malaysia subject.
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As for secondary school pupils from Forms One to Five, she said 154,853 of them have not mastered the 3M skills: reading, writing and counting.
“The Education Ministry has implemented various interventions to help pupils in all primary schools master the basic 3M skills.“Those who have not yet mastered the basic 3M skills are categorised based on achievement at Mastery Level 1 (TP 1) and Mastery Level 2 (TP 2) in the Classroom Assessment.“As of Dec 18, 2023, there are 280,985 primary school students who have obtained TP 1 and TP 2 in the Malay language subject.
“At the secondary school level, there are 154,853 pupils from Forms One to Five who have obtained TP 1 and TP 2,” she said in a Parliamentary written reply here yesterday.
She was responding to Datuk Abdul Khalib Abdullah (PN-Rompin), who had asked about the number of pupils who have learning problems in primary and secondary schools.
Abdul Khalib said such a situation is becoming increasingly apparent, as evident in the increasing number of school dropouts.
Fadhlina said her ministry is currently working on the issue through various plans and strategies to improve pupils’ mastery of the 3M skills.
“The Education Ministry has implemented a Special Rehabilitation Programme.
“(The ministry) has also mobilised various intervention programmes.
“(These include the) Reading Aid Programme, Literacy and Numeracy Programme (PLaN), PLaN Empowerment Camp, Malay Language Wise Programme, Guidance Programme (Probim) and Guidance Module Programme (Mobim),” the education minister added.
