Pregnancy among reasons why some Sabah students skipped 2022 SPM exams, says state director as CM demands answers for mass abseenteeism
KOTA KINABALU, Aug 1 – The Sabah Education Department has been told to look into the reasons why 5,686 students who registered for the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) last year did not sit for the public school leaving examinations.
Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor who gave the instruction today said it is a serious matter and he is giving it his personal attention.
“I pay serious attention to this issue in Sabah because the SPM is important in determining the future of our children before they continue their education to any institution of higher learning.
“Therefore, no matter how many students do not sit for SPM 2022, even if there are not this many, I want the state Education Department to identify what is the reason for their absence,” he told reporters after a scholarship presentation to 40 of the state’s top students at the Tun Ahmad Raffae Auditorium in the Tun Mustapha Tower here.
He noted reports had listed 34,461 students out of 40,147 registered students in Sabah took the SPM exams last year.
Hajiji said that it was worrying that students were missing out on such an important milestone in their education and urged them to sit for the exam this year.
A recent report from the Education Ministry said that some 10,000 of almost 30,000 students who did not sit the SPM 2022 exam registered for a repeat of the exam this year.
When asked, Sabah Education director Raisin Saidin said one of the reasons given by some exam candidates was that they had fallen pregnant and were too embarrassed to go back to school.
“Others have said that they opted not to sit for the exam, just do not have interest, or lack discipline,” he said.
Hajiji also said that although there was a 0.13 percent increase in the National Grade Point Average (GPA) from 5.35 points in 2021 to 5.22 points in 2022, it is still far compared to the national GPA of 4.74.
At the same time, he said, the gap between urban and rural areas in the state also widened from 0.53 points in 2021 to 0.61 points in 2022.
“The state government is concerned about this issue and it should be examined in detail foridentify the root cause of existing weaknesses,” he said.
Hajiji was also asked to comment on a recent court judgment against a teacher in Kota Belud who had been absent from English language class for seven months.
Hajiji said it was disappointing and an irresponsible act on the teacher’s end and hoped that it would not happen again.
