NST Leader: Reducing SPM dropouts requires intervention, not enforcement

 

Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia candidates taking the examination in Kuala Lumpur this year. NSTP FILE PIC

THE 11,412 teenagers who went missing in last year's Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examinations can be split into two main groups: those who want to sit for the SPM but were forced away by extenuating circumstances and those who just don't want to.

The first category can be due to all sorts of travails that can derail a young life, such as working to support families, a death in the family, unstable home environments, or illness or health complications.

It is the second category that is the most disturbing: students influenced by peers that further education is of little value.

This perception is aggravated by the obsession to become social media influencers, anything to avoid slogging for higher education. There is also a third category: those eschewing the national system to be privately educated.

Alarmed by the dropouts, the Education Ministry is taking action by mobilising home visits, providing counselling and monitoring absenteeism. But still, the decision to take the examination or drop out ultimately lies with the student.

The ministry was somewhat successful under the Education Development Plan (2013-2025) in getting dropouts to return to school.

As alarming as last year's 11,412 SPM dropouts were, it was an improvement from the 19,311 in 2020.

These efforts are slow, but a faster, more punitive proposal is in the works: making secondary school education compulsory, with dropouts liable to a RM5,000 fine or six months' imprisonment.

These measures in the Education (Amendment) Bill 2025 just tabled in Parliament, if adopted, should shrink dropout rates as parents are forced to ensure their children stay in school. The government views the bill as a way to improve literacy and skills, and reduce youth unemployment, narrow income gap and improve socioeconomic status.

However, a word of caution: there may be a mutinous lot who will still opt out despite knowing the consequences.

Perhaps the government should continue focusing on slow but positive intervention, rather than punitive measures.

Dragging unrelenting parents or students to court or penalising them are terrible optics that'll whip up public backlash, besides further exposing a failed education system. - NST