491,504 students in school this year

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KUCHING: The school session which commences today will see 267,624 primary and 223,880 secondary students commence class.

A press release from the state Education Department reveals that of the 267,624 primary students, 195,666 are from national schools, 71,958 from Chinese schools and 45,256 new primary one students. For secondary school, 35,819 students will start secondary education in form one.

To accommodate the large number of students, the state Education Department is allocating 25,644 teachers for primary and preschool.

They include 1,026 trained temporary teachers comprising 538 from Sarawak, 354 from Sabah and 134 from West Malaysia.

A total of 12,946 teachers will be teaching secondary students in Sarawak with about 1,500 vacancies for temporary teachers.

In an effort to improve the standard of teaching, the Education Department has offered non-graduate teachers the opportunity to further their education under the teachers graduation programme through part time long distant learning courses.

The programme, a collaboration between the Department and Open University Malaysia, saw 1,828 including 434 teachers take the opportunity to further their education.

To improve and standardise the quality of education for students, the government has introduced several assistance programmes.

A new scheme with an allocation of RM10,201,210.80 this year allows all Malaysian students in national and government assisted school to borrow textbooks.

Under the food assistance programme, the Education Department has allocated RM18,191,670 to supply 79,695 primary students with supplementary food.

The Education Department hopes the pass rate will be increased above the national level by improving the curriculum.

The Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) exam this year will be held at 1,260 school with 44,088 students sitting for the exam, while the Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) will be held at 170 secondary schools with 40,894 candidates.

Meanwhile, the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) will be held at 176 schools throughout the state for 37,375 students, while 6,550 form six students will be sitting for the Sijil Tinggi Pelajaran Malaysia (STPM) exams.