KUALA LUMPUR (July 28): Deputy Education Minister Wong Kah Woh on Monday tabled the Education (Amendment) Act 2025 for its first reading in the Dewan Rakyat, proposing to expand Malaysia’s definition of “compulsory education” to include secondary schooling alongside primary education.

According to the explanatory statement attached to the bill, the primary objective of the proposed amendment is to empower the Ministry of Education (MOE) to prescribe secondary education as compulsory, alongside primary education, under a revised legal framework.

Currently, the Education Act 1996 (Act 550) only defines compulsory education as six years of primary schooling. The proposed amendment to Section 2 of Act 550 will revise the term “compulsory education” to encompass both primary and secondary levels.

The bill also proposes a key revision to Subsection 29A(2), replacing the phrase “every parent who is a Malaysian citizen residing in Malaysia” with “every parent whose child is a Malaysian citizen and the child resides in Malaysia”, which broadens the scope of responsibility, shifting the focus from the citizenship status of the parent to that of the child.

Subsection 29A currently reads that "every parent who is a Malaysian citizen residing in Malaysia" shall ensure that if his child has attained the age of six years on the first day of January of the current school year that child is enrolled as a pupil in a primary school in that year and remains a pupil in a primary school for the duration of the compulsory education.

Additionally, a new section, Subsection 32A, is proposed to formally introduce compulsory secondary education. 

Under the provision, the minister may, by order published in the gazette, prescribe secondary schooling as mandatory. Parents of Malaysian children residing in Malaysia would then be legally required to ensure their children are enrolled and remain in secondary school for the full duration. 

Currently, Subsection 32 reads "the minister may provide for a transition class in any academic national secondary school".

The proposed section also grants the minister discretionary powers to exempt individuals or groups of pupils from this requirement, either entirely or under specific circumstances. Failure to comply could result in a fine of up to RM5,000, imprisonment of up to six months, or both.

The Education (Amendment) Act 2025 is expected to bring Malaysia closer to universal secondary school enrolment and address long-standing concerns over dropout rates in the secondary education system.

The bill will undergo a second reading in the same parliamentary session before it can be passed into law.

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