Kuala Lumpur: A total of 8,076 candidates for the 2024 Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination have been reported absent from all their written papers as of February 6, according to the Ministry of Education (MOE).

According to BERNAMA News Agency, the ministry highlighted that 6,231 of these absentees are from schools under the MOE. The information was revealed in a written reply published on the Parliament's website. The ministry cited an analysis from the School Attendance Management Application, which identified working, family issues, health problems, death, and moving abroad as the primary reasons for the candidates' absence during the examinations.

The statement was made in response to a query from Datuk Dr Ahmad Yunus Hairi (PN-Kuala Langat), who inquired about the causes of absenteeism and the measures being undertaken to address the issue. To combat this trend, the MOE has introduced several intervention strategies. These include the daily monitoring of student attendance through the Student Attendance System (eKehadiran) within the Student Database Application (APDM) to enable school-level interventions.

Moreover, a task force has been activated across all levels to monitor student status through a dashboard system, ensuring attendance in the SPM examination and optimizing appropriate intervention measures. The ministry is also implementing focused activities such as the Ziarah Cakna Programme and parent consultation sessions as part of a collective effort to address the issue.

Additionally, the MOE has launched early detection measures for Form 4 students at risk of dropping out to ensure their participation in the 2025 SPM examination.