Better future for all: Fadhlina said 48,308 pupils successfully mastered the essential skills and resumed regular classes after an intervention programme. — Bernama
A TOTAL of 122,062 Year One pupils have not mastered basic reading, writing and arithmetic skills, says Fadhlina Sidek.
The Education Minister said the figure represents 27.24% of 448,113 pupils screened under the first phase of an intervention programme held three months into the 2024/2025 academic session.
“These pupils have been given more focused guidance and intensive teaching through the intervention programme held from July to September this year.
“Results from data analysis as of Oct 30 show that 48,308 pupils (39.58%) successfully mastered these essential skills and resumed regular classes.
“The remaining 73,754 pupils (60.42%) who did not reach the proficiency level continued with the second phase of the programme for another three months (October to December),” she said in a written reply to a question by Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong (BN-Ayer Hitam) in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.
Dr Wee had asked about the status of the curriculum intervention for Year One students and its impact on alleviating the workload of primary and secondary school teachers in the Science and Mathematics subjects.
Fadhlina said pupils who are still struggling after the second phase would be eligible for a special recovery programme conducted by remedial teachers in Year Two, ensuring intensive guidance tailored to their needs.
She also said the ministry has rolled out the third edition of the Standard Curriculum for Primary Schools (KSSR) alignment document for subjects including Science, Mathematics, Bahasa Melayu and English.
“This document allows teachers the flexibility to either adopt the new curriculum or continue with the existing one.
“The revised curriculum focuses on core concepts, reducing the teaching burden, and is designed to be used with the First Level Guidance Module (Mobim).
“Mobim aims to assist teachers in planning more structured and level-appropriate lessons,” she added.
Based on an online survey conducted between June 6 and June 21 this year involving 20,930 primary school Science and Mathematics teachers, it was found that 18,321 educators have already integrated the KSSR alignment document into their teaching practices.
“Teachers are opting to use it to plan for more systematic and effective teaching strategies,” said Fadhlina.
She said they had initiated an early literacy and numeracy detection screening along with a Year One intervention programme.
“The ministry, in collaboration with the Finance Ministry through the ‘Anak Kita’ programme led by Unit Pantau Madani and Yayasan Hasanah, seeks to further address dropout issues by focusing on enhancing literacy and numeracy levels among Year Two to Year Six pupils,” she said.
The programme involves 53,252 students from 1,288 primary schools across seven states: Kedah, Perak, Selangor, Johor, Kelantan, Sabah and Sarawak.
“For this year, RM100mil has been allocated for the implementation of the programme, with an additional RM30mil earmarked for next year,” she said.
