KUALA LUMPUR, April 3 — The 2025 Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) results show the gap in National Average Grades (GPK) between urban and rural candidates narrowing, demonstrating the progress of Malaysia’s education democratisation initiatives.

Director-general of Education Datuk Dr Mohd Azam Ahmad said the GPK for urban candidates was 4.40 in 2025, down from 4.47 in 2024, while the GPK for rural candidates fell to 4.81 last year from 4.95 the previous year.

He said the narrowing of the gap was also the result of the Ministry of Education’s (MOE) commitment to equalising access to education, including efforts to maintain dilapidated schools and the fair deployment of teachers nationwide.

Mohd Azam added that the impact of these initiatives was evident in 19 schools in Sarawak’s interior, which also achieved excellent results in last year’s SPM examination.

“The measures we have implemented over time have reduced the gap to just 0.41 points, not even a full point. This reflects our efforts to equalise the achievement of our students, whether in urban or rural areas,” he said when appearing as a guest on the Ruang Bicara programme on Bernama TV here last night.

Meanwhile, Mohd Azam said the performance of candidates from Integrity Schools and Henry Gurney Schools recorded a 100 per cent pass rate in the 2025 SPM.

Among Orang Asli candidates, a total of 1,769 were awarded certificates and five candidates achieved straight A’s. One candidate from Henry Gurney School also recorded straight A’s.

On Tuesday, the 2025 SPM results marked the best performance yet, with a GPK of 4.42 compared with 4.49 in 2024.

He said a total of 366,435 candidates, or 94.29 per cent, were eligible for SPM certification in 2025, compared with 355,933 candidates in 2024. — Bernama