KUALA LUMPUR: The rate of school dropouts in the country from 2019 to 2020 showed a declining trend, the Parliament was told today.

Deputy Education Minister Lim Hui Ying said at the primary school level, the dropout rate dropped from 0.12 per cent in 2019 to 0.07 per cent in 2022, while for the secondary level, it dropped to 0.99 per cent in 2022 from 1.14 per cent in 2019.

However, she said, the dropout rate involving Year Three, Four and Six students for the period between 2019 to 2022 increased, while for the secondary school, the increase in dropouts during the same period involved Form Two students.

She was responding to a question from Lee Chean Chung (PH-Petaling Jaya) who wanted to know the dropout rate from the school system and the breakdown of reasons for the dropout by year, age, and gender from 2019 to June 2023 for each state, and the steps taken to get them back to school.

Regarding the gender of the school dropouts during the period, Lim said, none of them were female, while the dropouts among secondary students involved mostly female students.

She cited several reasons for the dropouts, which included a lack of interest in school, working, family problems, marriage and transportation problems.

In response to a supplementary question from Lee whether the government will implement compulsory education up to Form Three to address the problem of students dropping out of school, Lim said the ministry was preparing a draft of the Education Amendment Bill to extend compulsory education up to secondary school.

-- BERNAMA