21,316 Students Dropped Out During Pandemic, Education Minister Has No Plans To Shorten School Sessions

By Quinny Tan  •  06 Dec 2021 in News

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A total of 21,316 students did not complete their education and dropped out of schools during March 2020 to July 2021, the Education Ministry has said.

The Education Ministry stated that it defined dropouts from the education system as situations where Malaysian students were schooling but who left the education system before completing the period of education.

“Based on data for March to December 2020, students who stopped schooling are 11,301 or 0.24 per cent of students. For the period of January to July 2021, a total of 10,015 students or 0.21 per cent students were recorded stopping schooling.

“The total number of students who stopped schooling for the period from March 2020 to July 2021 is 21,316 or 0.22 per cent students,” the ministry said in the reply.

Last night, Kangar MP Noor Amin Ahmad posted on Twitter the undated written parliamentary reply from the Education Ministry from the Dewan Rakyat’s first meeting of the fourth term of the 14th Parliament, which would cover Dewan Rakyat sittings from September 13 to October 12 this year.

Mana sumber data saya mengatakan lebih 20,000 pelajar berhenti sekolah sejak Mac 2020 hingga Julai 2021? pic.twitter.com/vsARwvifoT

— Amin Ahmad 🏳️🏴🚩 (@NoorAminAhmad) December 4, 2021

Noor Amin had in the Dewan Rakyat asked the education minister to state the number of students who had stopped schooling from March 2020 until now.

A check of the statistics on the Education Ministry’s website shows that there are 5,038,318 students in Malaysia.

The official statistics of slightly over five million students cover those who are in preschool, primary and secondary schools at government schools and government-aided schools as well as the Institute of Teacher Education’s preschool programme.

Malaysia entered into its first movement control order on March 18, 2020 and went through various phases and versions of such movement restrictions that had included school closures and shifts to online classes, and is still battling the Covid-19 pandemic now.

In similar news, the Education Ministry is said to have no plans to end the school session for states under Phase 4 of the National Recovery Plan earlier than scheduled despite the detection of Covid-19 cases among students.

Education Minister Datuk Mohd Radzi Md Jidin said, so far, there were 200 cases involving students, and the situation was still under control.

“The number of active cases is lower compared to the total number of pupils and students who attended school, which is around 4.5 million people.

“As we are moving towards the endemic phase, this (Covid-19 infection) will occur but with the existing SOPs (standard operating procedures), we will try to control the situation to prevent the virus from spreading further,” he said.

He said this in a press conference after launching the Pendang Academy of Science with the deputy human resources minister, who is also the Pendang MP, Datuk Awang Hashim.

Radzi said any decision with regards to the closure of schools would depend on the risk assessment conducted by the Health Ministry, adding that the face-to-face school session was important in helping students avoid being left behind in their school lessons.