JOHOR BARU: In an effort to reduce the rate of dropouts in the future, the state government is coming out with a special tutoring programme to guide young students.

       State education, information, heritage and culture committee chairman Mazlan Bujang said the initiative dubbed ‘Didik Johor’ would start next year with an allocation of RM450,000.

       “The rate of dropouts in Johor is relatively low. It is estimated that only about 20% of students have dropped out of school during the pandemic.

       “However, we take this matter seriously and have come out with a programme to help students who are having difficulties in mastering basic skills, such as reading, writing and counting.

       “We will start the programme next year when we will have special classes for seven-year-olds,” he said.

       He said this after launching a programme by the National Economic Recovery Plan (Penjana) and the Higher Education Ministry yesterday.

       Mazlan said several Didik Johor sessions had been conducted for students living at the Desa Mutiara, Bukit Batu and Kempas people’s housing projects (PPR).

       “Yayasan Bandaraya Johor Baru and Iskandar Regional Development Authority have started the pilot project using the Finland module this year. We will expand this initiative next year with the approved allocation,” he said.

       He noted that the state government was also distributing 8,000 computers for students living in rural areas while the Federal Government also provided 1,500 gadgets to students.

       In a written parliamentary reply recently, the Education Ministry said that a total of 21,316 students dropped out of school during the Covid-19 pandemic from March last year to July this year.

       Before they completed their schooling, those who left the education system made up 0.22% of the total number of students, the ministry said to Noor Amin Ahmad (PH-Kangar).