LANGKAWI: The Education Ministry will table amendments to the Education Act 1996 in Parliament next month to make it compulsory for children to receive education until the age of 17 to overcome the problem of student dropout, says Fadhlina Sidek.
"After finalising the compulsory secondary education policy, we will look into the benefits of compulsory preschool education," she told a press conference after the Asean Education Ministers and Higher Education Ministers Roundtable Conference (#EduRoundtables2025) here, Thursday (June 19).
The next Parliament session is scheduled to start from July 21 to Aug 28.
Under the Compulsory Primary Education Policy, every parent of a citizen residing in Malaysia must ensure that their child receives six years of compulsory primary education.
Fadhlina said that the ongoing education reform initiatives include the expansion of preschools, though several challenges remain, particularly in developing the necessary infrastructure, addressing logistics issues, and building the capacity of qualified teachers.
She said that competent and trained teachers are important to providing young children with early exposure and a strong educational foundation at the preschool stage, before they begin formal mainstream schooling, a key step in reducing school dropout rates caused by barriers to early access.
"So, before we implement the policy to make preschool compulsory, we must first prepare the ecosystem, infrastructure and teachers," she said.
Earlier, Fadhlina delivered a welcoming address at the roundtable conference, which aims to strengthen regional cooperation in education, followed by a closed meeting of Asean education ministers.
The conference began on Wednesday (June 18) with a forum themed "Accelerating Innovative Strategies: Mitigating Out-of-School Children and Youth (OOSCY) Challenges", aimed at strengthening collective efforts through information sharing on groups that do not have access to education and are at risk of dropping out, as well as other issues related to dropout.
In addition to the participation of Asean member states, and Timor Leste as an observer, the Asean Education Forum was also joined by representatives from international organisations such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco), the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation (Seameo) and the Islamic World Organisation for Research, Science and Culture (Icesco).
This year, 2025, marks the fifth time Malaysia is holding the Asean chairmanship, following previous terms in 1977, 1997, 2005, and 2015. - Bernama
