The education ministry confirmed that nearly 30,000 candidates who were registered did not sit for the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) 2022 examination, including private candidates who were registered to take only one or two subjects.

Deputy Education Minister Lim Hui Ying said the number according to the ministry's record is actually 29,663 out of a total of 407,637 registered candidates.

She added that there was no question of a discrepancy between the figures and the number mentioned by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim during the Cakna and Malaysia Madani Dialogue programme at the Dewan Canselor Tun Abdul Razak, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia recently.

"What the former education minister (Mohd Radzi Jidin) stated, that only 14,858 or 3.8% of the candidates did not attend the examination, were actually candidates who were registered to take six subjects including private candidates," she said during a question-and-answer session at the Dewan Rakyat today.

She was answering a supplementary question from Roslan Hashim (PN-Kulim-Bandar Baharu) regarding the discrepancy between the dropout figures for SPM 2022 mentioned by the prime minister and data from the education ministry.

Last Tuesday, Anwar had said that 30,000 candidates were recorded as not sitting for the SPM examination last year, but yesterday Radzi, who is also Putrajaya MP claimed that the prime minister had distorted the number.

Meanwhile, Lim said the education ministry will improve the teaching and learning system based on digital technology to meet the needs of the education system in the future.

She said, teachers will be given training and guidance in support of the implementation of the current education policy, including improving knowledge and skills in the digitalisation aspect of education, as well as developing competence independently, to meet the needs so as to carry out their duties.

"Based on statistics in the Malaysian Education Ministry's Training Management System until May 31, 2023, a total of 1,789 digital or ICT-related trainings have been carried out," she said.

According to her, the government has also provided 50,000 laptops to schools and educational institutions under the education ministry to help teachers educate, in line with the current digital technology modernisation.

Commenting further, Lim said her ministry also implements a service programme to help teachers integrate educational technology through video-sharing activities, webinars and tutorials using digital technology in delivering effective teaching.

"The teachers selected to provide support services consist of those who have been recognised by Microsoft, Google and Apple. This group is known as the Leading Teachers of the Digital Generation," she said.

She was answering a question by Wee Jeck Seng (BN-Tanjung Piai) regarding the help channelled to teachers to manage face-to-face and online learning when Malaysia was still in the Covid-19 transition to the endemic phase.