KUALA LUMPUR – Legal action is not the best solution against parents whose children drop out of school, Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek said today.
Advocacy programmes to increase parents’ awareness and understanding of the challenges they may face in sending their children to school are better approaches, she added.
“It won’t come to that (legal action) even though the legal implications (in the law) are there. What we want is to give parents more understanding that secondary education is important,” she said at an event today to hand over back-to-school backpacks to low-income families by Yayasan Petronas.
Education in Malaysia is mandatory up to Year 6. Yesterday, in a parliamentary written reply, the Education Ministry said the dropout rate of primary school pupils nationwide was 0.07% as of June last year, while the rate for secondary school students was higher at 0.99%.
Fadhlina said the ministry will continue to engage parents on the importance of completing their children’s education.
“It means giving them reminders and at the same time making sure they don’t have any issues with sending their children to school,” she told reporters after the handover event today.
The packs contain vouchers for school uniforms, shoes, socks, sports clothes, bags, stationery sets, colour pencils, and calculators. – The Vibes, March 22, 2023
