Minister Fadhlina Sidek said in order to do that, more pre-schools would be opened and a campaign would be conducted to encourage parents to send their children to pre-schools.

“Pre-school enrolment is currently at 80% while secondary school enrolment is around 78%. This is quite low compared to the 98% enrolment in primary schools.

“So we have two segments of students whose enrolment we need to focus on, namely pre-school and secondary school,” she told reporters after attending the “Sesi Motivasi Bersama Cikgu Menteri” programme here last night.

Fadhlina also cited poverty as a contributing factor for the low primary pre-school enrolment rate.

Asked if the ministry intended to make pre-school education compulsory like primary education, Fadhlina said the ministry needed to first resolve pre-school-related issues.

On secondary school dropouts, she said a bill to make secondary education compulsory for students would be tabled in Parliament to ensure students completed their schooling up to Form Five.