Student dropout rate in schools declining year by year

THE dropout rate in schools across the country has been declining from 2017 up until last year, says Deputy Education Minister Wong Kah Woh.

According to Wong, the dropout rate for primary school students decreased from 0.29% in 2017 to merely 0.06% last year.

For secondary students, Wong said the dropout rate came down from 1.35% to 0.83% from 2017 to last year.

“Between city and rural areas, the rate of students leaving government primary schools in the city is 0.37% and 0.1% in rural schools.

“At secondary level, the dropout rate is 3.13% in the city and 4.67% in rural areas,” said Wong during Question Time yesterday.

Wong said the Education Minister has held engagement sessions with 11 states on expanding the Sekolah Bimbingan Jalinan Kasih (SBJK) programme, which was created to provide access to education for children who drop out of school.

The states involved in the SBJK programme were Penang, Johor, Pahang, Terengganu, Kedah, Negri Sembilan, Selangor, Kelantan, Perak, Sabah and Sarawak.

Wong was responding to Roslan Hashim (PN-Kulim Bandar Baharu), who asked about the effectiveness of SBJK in reducing the dropout rate.

According to Wong, SBJK was created in 2013 in Chow Kit, Kuala Lumpur, to provide access to education for street and marginalised children around the capital before it was expanded to SK Sembulan in Kota Kinabalu in October last year.

Wong said other measures to reduce the dropout rate included providing 18 types of schooling assistance last year, which comprised 13 types of special assistance and five types of general assistance.