KUALA LUMPUR: The Education Ministry needs to urgently reform the secondary school curriculum to cut dropout rates instead of faulting it to factors such as marriage.
Wanita MCA spokesperson Ivone Low Yi Wen, in refuting deputy education minister Lim Hui Ying's statement, said one cannot dismiss the fact that there were serious problems in the curriculum and the secondary schools system.
This, she said, warranted urgent reforms and improvements after Lim said the dropout rate for primary and secondary schools dropout had fallen to less than one per cent.
Low added that Lim had said that while the dropout rate of male secondary school students had lowered, the number for their female counterparts rose from 0.40 per cent in 2019 to 0.71 per cent in 2022.
"It is too sweeping a statement and an overgeneralization to blame marriage as one of the causes for the higher dropout rate among female secondary school students.
"The core setback is that the ministry has not kept pace with the times when handling secondary education.
"Disciplinary problems in local secondary schools have festered for a long time while the issue of student attendance has not received enough attention, let alone proposed solutions.
"These problems are the main reasons as to why many underage girls drop out of school and tie the knot early and not vice versa," said Low in a statement today.
Low, who is Beliawanis MCA national chairman, said the syllabus for secondary school education is inadequate in the segments on gender relations and sex education.
This, she said, had resulted to students lacking the necessary knowledge and awareness.
"This exacerbates the problems of early marriage and early pregnancy among youngsters.
"The ministry should prioritise solving these issues rather than fault marriage as to why female secondary students leave school early before the syllabus' completion.
"By reviewing the entire existing system and curriculum for secondary education and focusing on solving key issues, the ministry would be able to ensure that every student would receive better quality education and fully develop and realise their potential," she added.
Lim had said that the ministry's Student Database Application System (ADPM) from 2019 to this year showed the main reasons for the rise in the dropout rate were a lack of interest in schooling, employment or family issues, marriage as well as difficulty attending school due to distance.
