By Aida Aziz
A total of 1,106 out of 28,715 candidates for the Malaysian Certificate of Education (SPM) for the year 2022 Ipoh did not attend and sit for the examination, said the chairman of the state Education, Higher Education, Youth and Sports Committee, Khairudin Abu Hanipah.
According to him, among the possible factors that lead to student dropout in Perak include students who are already working or have lost interest in continuing their studies.
Khairudin said that the issue of student dropouts or more specifically SPM candidates who do not sit for the exam is not a new issue, but has been going on every year in this state.
“According to the data, 1,106 SPM 2022 candidates did not attend the exam for all subjects.
“There are various factors why they do not attend, in Perak one of the reasons may be that the student previously registered (SPM) but could not finish his studies because he was already working and wanted to earn his own income.
“Due to the constraints of poverty and so on, there are opportunities for work in the field of e-hailing or food delivery, it can help them earn an income.
“Perhaps they want to find money in a quick way and take such action, besides the lack of interest in studying after COVID-19 lock down and they got used to studying online, as well as use that opportunity to get a side job,” he said.
He said this in commenting on the situation of student dropouts in Perak who did not sit for SPM.
Previously, the media reported that Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek said that the poverty factor was identified as one of the causes of the dropout problem among pupils and students.
Khairuddin said following that the Ministry of Education (KPM) in collaboration with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) is collecting data to deal with the issue.
Meanwhile, when asked if the poverty factor is the main problem for the issue, Khairudin explained many other reasons that need to be examined.
“Perhaps before some parties did not take the matter seriously but there are indeed students who will not take the exam even if we go to his house.
“We can’t say that because of poverty, students don’t want to take exams because many B40 students are successful.
“Maybe there is a small percentage because of that (poverty) but that is not the main factor why they don’t sit for the exam,” he said.
Earlier, he was met after officiating the EmpowerNCER Academic Collaboration and Appreciation Ceremony, here on Saturday.
Also present, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Student and Alumni Affairs) of Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI), Prof Dr Norkhalid Salimin, Director of Human Capital and NCIA Secretariat, Shahdee Ahmad and Head of Yayasan Petronas, Operations Division, Tengku Noraida Tengku Mahmood.
