The Education Ministry has sharply reduced its planned intake of contract teachers for next year after Year One enrolment registrations for 2027 came in significantly below initial projections.
Deputy Education Minister Wong Kah Woh told the Dewan Rakyat that only 73,386 applications pertaining to six-year-olds were received, compared with the ministry’s original projection of about 400,000 pupils following the introduction of optional early entry into primary school next year.
The lower-than-expected registration figure has prompted the ministry to revise its staffing plans, with only a few thousand contract-of-service (COS) teachers to be recruited next year, down from the earlier estimate of up to 20,000, Wong said.
“Taking into account the current status of the low registration among the six-year-old cohort, the ministry has adjusted its requirements by recruiting 3,150 COS teachers to meet immediate needs in primary schools,” he said during Ministers’ Question Time yesterday.
However, Wong said the special recruitment exercise will not replace the ministry’s main teacher planning framework, which remains centred on the conventional professional teaching pathway.
He was responding to Jalaluddin Alias (BN-Jelebu), who asked about the ministry’s preparations for the intake of six-year-olds into Year One in 2027 and the measures to ensure teachers are not overburdened by the additional enrolment.
Wong said total applications for the 2027 Year One intake currently stood at 478,419 pupils, comprising 73,386 six-year-olds and 405,033 seven-year-olds.
The figure represents a 12.07% increase compared with the 2026 Year One intake, he added.
To prepare schools for the larger intake, he said the ministry is completing 2,596 new classrooms using the Industrialised Building System modular construction methods at 838 schools nationwide.
He said the projects will be completed this year to ensure school readiness, with the ministry also optimising space and ready to implement double sessions if necessary.
Wong also said the ministry is processing 4,417 candidates from the Education Service Commission’s reserve list for the July and December 2025 intakes, with 2,633 expected to receive appointment offers soon.
In January, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim announced that preschool education will begin at age five, while Year One entry will start at age six from next year.
The early entry scheme is voluntary and requires children to undergo an assessment to determine their readiness for formal schooling.
