Use Of Technology, Competent Teachers Among Efforts To Address Student Dropout Issues In ASEAN, Says Fadhlina
Minister of Education Fadhlina Sidek on a press conference after the ASEAN Ministers of Education and Higher Education Roundtables and Events in Langkawi. -- fotoBERNAMA (2025) COPYRIGHT RESERVED
LANGKAWI, June 19 (Bernama) -- ASEAN countries have identified three main interventions in their joint efforts to address the issue of dropouts and out-of-school children and youth (OOSCY), namely the expansion of preschool education, use of technology and competent teachers.
Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek said the issue was the main focus during the joint statement session held in conjunction with the two-day ASEAN Education and Higher Education Ministers' Roundtable 2025 (#EduRoundtables2025) which started here yesterday.
"Our focus in this meeting is on the issue of dropouts, out-of-school children and youth, which emphasises several important interventions for us to consider as an ASEAN community to address this issue.
"In the meeting just now, the leaders of these countries have already given their respective views on how ASEAN can move as one community to seriously address this issue together," she said.
According to her, among the initial approaches discussed was the enforcement of compulsory preschool education policies as implemented in Brunei.
"Brunei has already pioneered that agenda, as mentioned in the speech by Brunei's Minister of Education earlier, that among the ways to ensure that children receive their rights is to start by enforcing laws for mandatory preschool education policies.
"We are also looking into that situation, and at the level of the Ministry of Education Malaysia (MOE), we hope to bring it to the next Parliament session. Hopefully, we will have time to present our amendments for the compulsory education policy, starting with secondary schools first," she said during a press conference after #EduRoundtables2025 here today.
Commenting further, Fadhlina said the second focus is on the use of technology as an important tool in addressing the issue of dropouts.
"There are indeed several important approaches to see the need for this technology to become tools in addressing the issue of dropouts.
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