KUALA LUMPUR (March 21): The Ministry of Education (MOE) aims to revert the start of the school academic calendar to January beginning from 2026, the Senate was told on Thursday.

Minister Fadhlina Sidek said this in response to a supplementary question from Senator Tan Sri Mohamad Fatmi Che Salleh regarding the ministry’s long-term plan to return the new school session from March to January.

“The school opening session that currently begins in March will be reverted to January starting from 2026. This represents a crucial commitment to restoring the academic session [to its pre-pandemic state],” she said.

The country’s academic calendar has had to be adjusted to begin in March since 2022 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

On Monday, Deputy Education Minister Wong Kah Woh told the Dewan Rakyat that the government had begun efforts to start the 2024/2025 academic calendar in February 2025 to ensure that the school session for 2026 could take place from January to December.

Meanwhile, Fadhlina said the MOE is actively working to implement the proposal to extend compulsory education to the secondary school level.

She said the proposal would soon be presented in a Cabinet meeting to secure policy approval before proceeding with drafting amendments to the Education Act 1995.

“We are in the process of gathering feedback from other relevant ministries. Once the process is completed, the policy will be brought before Parliament,” she said.

Fadhlina was responding to a question from Senator Datuk Dr R Nelson about the latest status of the policy to make secondary school education compulsory in Malaysia and the target for full implementation to prevent dropouts.