PUTRAJAYA: To address the school dropout issue involving Malaysian students, the Education Ministry (MOE) and the Finance Ministry (MOF) will launch the Anak Kita programme this Friday.
The ministries said the programme focuses on improving literacy and numeracy among primary school students, improving the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) passing rate and reintegrating dropouts into the education system.
“The learning recovery programme that will be implemented includes targeted interventions, remedial classes, teacher training and digital learning tools,” the ministries said in a joint statement, as reported by Bernama.
According to the statement, the programme would be managed by the two ministries in collaboration with the Hasanah Foundation, corporate organisations, civil society organisations, public universities, government-linked companies and international organisations.
Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek said in the statement that based on the Examination Board’s statistics, 10,160 (or 2.65%) of the 395,870 registered SPM candidates did not sit for the national examination last year.
“Of the number of students who sat (for the SPM exam) in the same year, 6.5% of the total number of candidates, equivalent to 25,735 students, were not eligible to receive their SPM certificate,” she said in elaborating the dropout situation in Malaysia.
Finance Minister II Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan said that efforts to deal with dropouts are essential because education is the basis for human capital development, an asset to the country’s economic prosperity.
He said in the statement that possessing an SPM qualification is critical to empowering the youth and ensuring productive participation in the workforce.
“A good education can build a generation with a good personality and intellectual skills that are much needed to drive a sustainable economy as outlined in the Madani Economy framework.
“Through the improvement of education, the people can get out of the poverty crisis and raise the family’s economic level for the long term in line with the Malaysian Government’s desire to eradicate poverty in this country,” he said.
