SPM 2021: Education Ministry to find out why 24,941 candidates opted out

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

Senior Education Minister Datuk Dr Mohd Radzi Md 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 avoid recurrence in the future.

"We have to identify the reasons as the SPM 2021 cohort was the most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic,” he told a press conference after a visit to Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Presint 18 (1) here today.

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

Asked about 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 to have difficulties that have prevented them from sitting for examinations, especially SPM. - BERNAMA