Intervention can reduce SPM candidate dropouts, says Deputy Education Minister

TAIPING: Intervention measures which are not new have been used continuously to deal with the dropout of Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) candidates, says Wong Kah Woh.

The Deputy Education Minister said the move is more persuasive to create awareness on the importance and advantages of sitting the examination.

"Basically, we have conducted this intervention step before the candidates sit for the SPM exam where it includes giving advice and counseling aimed at making them aware of its importance.

"This effort has shown results where the number of candidates who did not sit the exam has been successfully reduced by 1.2% compared to last year," he said when met after officiating the closing of the Malaysia International Muay Championship (MIMAC) here Sunday (June 2) night.

On May 27, Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek confirmed that ministry will carry out intervention to detect dropout candidates and give them the opportunity to register for SPM again.

Earlier, a total of 10,160 out of 383,685 new SPM 2023 candidates were reported not to have attended the examination.

Meanwhile, Wong said that he believes that the intervention measures can also reduce the dropout problem on a larger scale if it gets full cooperation from all parties, including parents.

"It's not just the government but we all need to foster a phenomenon to encourage children to sit for this exam. If this happens, I'm sure it will be the direction to overcome this dropout issue," he said.

When asked about the factors that caused this to happen, he acknowledged the influence of social media as one of the main causes of the problem.

Commenting on MIMAC, he said this tournament had successfully attracted 240 participants from 120 teams involving 12 countries including Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Iran, Laos and Afghanistan.

He added that the main purpose of the competition held in cooperation between the Education Ministry, the Youth and Sports Ministry and the Perak Tomoi Association is to help unearth new talents in addition to developing the sport of Muay Thai in the country. - Bernama