Its minister, Fadhlina Sidek, said the focus on those who passed the examination was so the ministry could “move forward”.

“And that is what we want to highlight,” she said, referring to the percentage of those who passed their SPM.

“As for the rest, we will intervene. We need to focus on the next step,” she told reporters after launching a legal aid project by PKR here.

Fadhlina said this when asked to comment on those who had failed their SPM after she revealed the percentage of those who failed to obtain their certificate earlier this month.

A total of 373,974 candidates sat for SPM last year.

Earlier today, FMT reported that 23,358 candidates failed History, while 9,642 failed Bahasa Malaysia.

Those who fail these two subjects will not be able to obtain their SPM certificate.

NGO Untuk Malaysia also revealed that a total of 89,752 candidates (24.3%) failed Mathematics.

When asked to comment on those who failed these subjects, Fadhlina said it was unfair to focus on such a narrative as these students had potential in other areas.

And teachers will help students who failed their papers, regardless of the subjects, she added.

“The teachers are doing their best.”