NIBONG TEBAL: The Education Ministry is making full preparations to handle the admission of six-year-olds into Year One from next year, in anticipation of the encouraging response from parents, says Fadhlina Sidek.
The Education Minister said that online registration would open on Feb 15, and based on the early feedback, the ministry is expecting a significant surge in pupil intake, especially in urban areas.
"As mentioned in Parliament recently, our preparations are at the highest level, although we do not know for sure the number of pupils who will be enrolling,” she said.
She said this after officiating at the Semarak Sejahtera Activity Centre Older Persons (PAW) programme at Jalan Sungai Acheh here on Sunday (Feb 8), which was also attended by Social Welfare Department director-general Datuk Che Murad Sayang Ramjan.
Fadhlina, who is also the Nibong Tebal MP, was commenting on preparations for the admission of Year 1 pupils from the six-year cohort for the 2027 school session.
She said the ministry's main focus now was on mapping areas and schools, including identifying existing facilities, class capacity and optimising schools that were expected to receive an influx of students.
She added that they expect, especially in urban areas, to receive more admissions of Year 1 students aged six than usual.
"Going by our 'mapping’, all urban areas will indeed accept, meaning parents welcome this matter... So, it is the urban areas that we expect to receive more (admission) than usual, Insya-Allah,” she said.
To accommodate the expected demand, Fadhlina said the ministry would also optimise the use of existing classrooms and add new classrooms through the industrialised building system (IBS), which is faster compared to conventional construction.
"We will also recruit 20,000 teachers as required. These two key aspects, provision of facilities and recruitment of teachers, are being diligently and thoroughly carried out because we are committed to ensuring the smooth admission of Year One pupils,” she said.- Bernama
