Education ministry to study why nearly 25,000 SPM candidates opted out of exam

The education ministry will conduct a post-mortem to find out why 24,941 registered candidates did not sit for the 2021 Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination.

Education Minister Radzi Jidin said the majority of them were private candidates.

“We are analysing the data and will check the trends of previous years. If there is a rising trend, we will decide on the appropriate measures to prevent a recurrence in the future.

“We have to identify the reasons as the 2021 SPM cohort was the most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic,” he told a press conference after a visit to SMK Presint 18 (1) in Putrajaya today.

In announcing the 2021 SPM results today, education director-general Nor Zamani Abdol Hamid said 24,941 out of the total 407,097 registered candidates did not sit for the examination.

Asked why the candidates chose not to sit for the examination, Radzi said some of them were facing personal, family and financial problems.

However, he said school administrators had always approached students and families who were identified as having difficulties that have prevented them from sitting for examinations, especially SPM.