Big dreams: (From left) Fadhlina and Amir Hamzah posing with children dressed up as a variety of professions at the Anak Kita programme launch at SK Rasa in Hulu Selangor. — AZMAN GHANI/The Star
Anak Kita programme for those falling behind or dropping out
RASA: Over 83,000 students who are falling behind in school or have dropped out will undergo special interventions through the Anak Kita programme, says Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek.
She said the programme, a collaboration between the Education and Finance ministries, is designed to tackle the school dropout issue and support pupils who have fallen behind in school.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, she said, many students nationwide were facing learning loss and learning poverty, besides the many who have dropped out of school.
She added that there were many reasons why pupils drop out of school, including needing to work or societal issues.
(Learning loss occurs when there is unfinished or incomplete learning by students while learning poverty refers to those who are unable to read or understand simple text by age 10).
“Hence, the government upped its commitment to solve these issues, leading to the Anak Kita programme with a RM100mil allocation to ensure it is sufficient and can reach its target children,” she said when launching the programme at SK Rasa, Selangor yesterday.
Based on data and key objectives, three intervention sub-programmes were developed to tackle specific challenges in primary and secondary schools, targeting 3,458 schools involving 83,752 pupils.
Fadhlina said the first phases of the reading, writing and numeracy (3M) sub-programme will be carried out in seven states (Johor, Perak, Selangor, Kelantan, Kedah, Sabah and Sarawak), the dropout sub-programme in six states (Selangor, Kedah, Johor, Pahang, Sabah and Sarawak), while the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) sub-programme will be conducted nationwide.
A total of 53,252 special remedial pupils in Year Two to Year Six will be in the 3M sub-programme; 500 school dropouts in the dropout sub-programme; and 20,000 Form Five and 10,000 Form Four students in the SPM sub-programme.
Interventions, she said, will be carried out through extra tuition classes, motivational sessions, mentoring, one-on-one coaching and hybrid lessons using specially-prepared modules.
The pupils will be given interventions based on their needs and capabilities, she added.
Although the programme is only being carried out at selected schools, Fadhlina said parents who want to help their children who dropped out or are falling behind can approach their child’s school as every school has existing learning intervention programmes.
Finance Minister II Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan said the programme will be managed by the two ministries in collaboration with the Hasanah Foundation, corporate organisations, civil society organisations, public universities, government-linked companies, international organisations (including World Bank, Unesco and Unicef), community leaders, parents and local communities.
The programme is also spearheaded by Unit Pantau Madani, a body under the Finance Ministry, and the first phase will end on Dec 31.
“This is not to take over the efforts of the Education Ministry but to provide more support so that we can deal with the issues that exist in the country,” he added.
In a pre-recorded message, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said the programme is an additional effort to get youth back into school amid the worrying number of school dropouts.
“The nation’s children cannot afford to be left behind and must be given all kinds of assistance ... and given even a second chance,” he said.
