PARLIAMENT | Child marriage is among the reasons for pupils dropping out from primary schools, Education Minister Maszlee Malik told the Dewan Rakyat today.

Other reasons included poverty, students' lack of interest, the indifferent attitude of their parents, sickness and being physically challenged, he added.

The average school dropout rate has been reduced to 0.29 percent in 2017 from 0.34 percent in 2014, Maszlee said during the question-and-answer session of the House sitting.

He added that the ministry wants the rate to drop to 0.27 percent for next year.

Pakatan Harapan government came out with guidelines to assist schools in identifying the pupils who are at risk and this has been followed since June 1.

It was reported that approximately 82,000 child marriages were recorded in Malaysia up until 2010.

The government is determined to raise the minimum marriage age to 18.

Maszlee said the ministry had started 'Zero Dropout' programme, a micro approach involves various government agencies to tackle the matter.

"The National Registration Department and the district education departments were asked to identify representatives from the palace, the industry, government to draw the attention of the community to resolve dropout issues," he said. 
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