No discrimination in education, says Education Minister

PUTRAJAYA: There must be no discrimination in education, said Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek.

“Confucius was the first educator to put forward the idea of teaching without discrimination.

“Given the current situation, especially post-pandemic (period), we recognise that children from less privileged backgrounds are at a greater disadvantage.

“This inequality will continue to widen if we don’t take any steps to improve the situation,” she said during an editors briefing on an upcoming intervention programme on Tuesday (Sept 10).

The programme to address the widespread issue of learning loss is set to launch on Sept 27.

Elaborating on the impending programme, she said that the process of developing and implementing it had been challenging due to the need to obtain data for the second assessment, which requires involvement from all stakeholders.

“The first assessment conducted since March was carried out under the curriculum intervention as part of the curriculum reform agenda.

“We found that 122,000 Year One pupils still have not mastered the 3M skills – reading, writing and counting.

”Therefore, collaboration from all parties is needed to address every cohort of children from Year One up to Form Five, and we cannot do it alone. We need a synergistic approach,” she said, adding that the programme they are launching is to ensure that no child is left behind in the education system.

“I believe to build a strong education system, it takes a village to raise a child,” she said. (ends)