Dr Annuar Rapaee said a high dropout rate leaves a negative impression on the country’s education system, The Borneo Post reported.

“The matter should be resolved as soon as possible without any dilly-dallying.

“As mentioned by the deputy prime minister (Ahmad Zahid Hamidi), one of the reasons for the high number of dropouts (before sitting for SPM in Form 5) is because there were no examinations (previously),” he was quoted as saying.

Annuar, who is Sarawak’s deputy education, innovation and talent development minister, said that since there is a high dropout rate, action should be taken quickly to rectify the situation.

On Sunday, Zahid revealed that 10,177 SPM candidates did not sit for the exam last year, partially due to the inability to read, write and do arithmetic.

He said this when calling for the education policy to be revamped.

The Year 6 and Form 3 exams were abolished in 2021 and 2022 respectively by then education minister Radzi Jidin. The exams were replaced by the classroom assessment and school-based assessment.

Annuar said having standardised assessments is vital for uniform data on literacy and numeracy proficiency, in addition to data that facilitates policy planning.

“Data-driven decision-making is so important if we are to get maximum results from any intervention,” he said, adding that the state government realised the importance of a standardised assessment and had proposed its own version.