KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 11 — The Education Ministry is drawing up a Bill to expand compulsory schooling from the primary to secondary level.

Its deputy minister Lim Hui Ying said the proposal is for schoolchildren to complete the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM).

"The ministry has been taking various initiatives to streamline the draft Bill, including holding engagement sessions with various stakeholders such as Suhakam, the National Union of the Teaching Profession, and non-governmental organisations,” she said during Question Time in the Dewan Rakyat today.

Lim was replying to Petaling Jaya MP Lee Chean Chung who asked if Malaysia would follow Thailand’s example and raise compulsory education from primary school to Form Three in secondary school to prevent dropouts.

She said Malaysia’s student dropout rate is on the decline, and cited from her ministry’s data between 2019 and 2022.

"At the primary level, the dropout rate decreased from 0.12 per cent in 2019 to 0.07 per cent in 2022.

"Similarly, at the secondary level, the dropout rate saw a decrease from 1.14 per cent in 2019 to 0.99 per cent in 2022,” Lim said.

She added that her ministry is still waiting for enrolment information from other agencies not under its purview to finalise the dropout data for 2023.

Schooling in Malaysia is only compulsory from Year 1 to Year 6 under the existing Education Act 1996.

Parents who fail to ensure their children receive primary school education can be fined up to RM5,000, or jailed up to six months, or both if convicted.

In March, Bernama reported that Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek said that the education ministry has submitted a draft to the Attorney General’s Chambers on the proposal to make secondary school education compulsory.

The education minister told the Dewan Negara back then that the move was to ensure there were no dropouts at the primary and secondary levels.