Putrajaya MP Radzi Jidin has refuted claims by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim regarding the number of students who did not sit for the SPM 2022 examination while the former was the education minister
The Perikatan Nasional lawmaker pointed out that according to the Education Ministry, the number of students absent from the final school leaving examination was listed as 14,858, not 30,000 as claimed by the prime minister.
"The media reports revealed that 14,858 candidates did not sit for SPM, so where did that data of 30,000 come from?
"I do not know whether the (current) education minister deceived the prime minister.
"Or is the prime minister speaking without referring to any facts?" Radzi (above) said during a press conference at the Parliament lobby today.
Yesterday, Anwar attributed Radzi's failure to monitor the students taking the examination as the cause of the high rate of SPM absenteeism following the pandemic.
"How could there be an education minister at that time who couldn't monitor the students who didn't take the examination?" he said during a dialogue session at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) in Bangi yesterday.
Several media reports quoted Anwar as saying that the figure of 30,000 was among the candidates for SPM 2022.
However, a check by Malaysiakini found that the prime minister did not mention the specific year.
Last year, Radzi, as the education minister at the time, stated that there were 24,941 students who did not sit for SPM 2021.
Following that, on June 11, now minister Fadhlina Sidek stated that 14,858 students did not sit for SPM 2022.
‘We can play politics’
Meanwhile, Radzi urged Anwar not to play politics in education and called on him to correct the facts before making accusations.
He also claimed that Anwar's statement was an attempt to blame the former minister regarding the matter, but he clarified that the examination took place when he was no longer in office.
"The prime minister said that the education minister at that time did not monitor the students taking the exam, and it was only when Fadhlina came into office that she uncovered it.
"The written SPM exam started from February until March, preceded by practical exams. These exams took place when I was no longer in office, so how could I monitor them?
"That's why I said in this context, if we start politicising this situation, we can play politics… I can play politics. Every day, everything is related to politics," he said. - Mkini
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.