KUALA LUMPUR: The Education Ministry will build 2,596 classrooms and hire 3,150 contract teachers to prepare for the Year One cohort in schools nationwide for 2027.
Deputy Education Minister Wong Kah Woh said registrations so far showed 73,386 six-year-olds and 405,033 seven-year-olds had applied for Year One places in schools for 2027.
He said the combined number of 478,419 applications was 12.07% higher than the 2026 Year One intake, which only took in seven-year-olds.
The 3,150 teachers would be hired under the contract of service (COS) scheme, while new classrooms were being built at 838 schools using the modular industrialised building system and due for completion this year, he said.
He was replying to Datuk Seri Jalaluddin Alias (BN-Jelebu) during Question Time on Wednesday (June 24).
On pupils arriving from different early-education backgrounds, Wong said parents could decide whether their child was ready to start in the cohort of six-year-olds or stay with the seven-year-old group.
He said the ministry had opened 350 pre-school classes in 2026, compared to about 150 a year previously, to broaden access for B40 families unable to afford private kindergartens.
It was also studying what the loss of a cohort would mean for the sustainability of private kindergartens, while talks with operators continued, he said.
Replying to a supplementary question from Datuk Idris Ahmad (PN-Bagan Serai) on training teachers for six-year-olds and projected shortages by state, Wong said the ministry kept a five-year forecast of teacher needs at both national and state levels.
Besides the COS teachers, it would also draw on reserve candidates from the Education Service Commission (SPP) to meet immediate needs, while stepping up professional training ahead of the six-year-old intake, he said.
He added that the Year One transition programme would be used in full to help pupils settle in and that the 2027 curriculum, to be rolled out next year, had been pitched to their developmental levels and needs.
