The world of Tzu Chi January 2020 (Vol.118)

TZU CHI 118 07 answer session in Parliament, former Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik attributed dropout cases to various factors, including poverty, lack of interest in learning, parental neglect, illness, disability, social problems, learning difficulties and underage marriage. Poverty remains a pertinent issue plaguing Malaysian society, with tens of thousands of families living on the fringes without an adequate social safety net. The Malaysian government has introduced the Poverty Line Income (PLI) measure to identify households living below the poverty line. Currently, the PLI stands at RM980 in Peninsular Malaysia, RM1,180 in Sabah and RM1,020 in Sarawak respectively. The B40 group, representing households earning a total income that ranks in the bottom 40 percent of the overall population, is particularly susceptible to the attendant concerns of poverty, such as being deprived of an education. The dropout rate of Malaysian students declined from 0.35 percent in 2016 to 0.29 percent in 2017, yet children from the B40 group seem more vulnerable to dropping out from school, as implied by the high dropout rates among them. As of 2016, the Department of Statistics of Malaysia defined the B40 group as families earning a mean household income of RM2,848. Meanwhile, a report by the Khazanah Research Institute revealed that nearly 10 percent of households in Malaysia earn less than RM2,000 monthly. The report cautioned that these high-risk families survive on a remaining income of RM76 on average after accounting for daily expenses, leaving them not only ill-equipped to deal with emergencies, but also precariously vulnerable to financial crises. The average income ofMalaysians has been rising at a compound growth rate of 6.3 percent from 1993 to 2016, while the median household income of the B40 group has also shown an annual increment. However, the presumed corresponding increase in spending power has been negated by rising costs of living and a comparatively slower rate of growth in wage levels, as Malaysians allocate larger proportions of their income to meet daily expenditure without a significant increase in earnings. When survival is at stake, education tends to take a backseat. Although the costs of public education are largely subsidized by Mean household income of Malaysians in 2016 B40 10% 30% (RM 2,848) (>RM 2,000) (RM 16,088) T20 M40 (RM 6,502) (RM 2,848) Opening Doors to a Brighter Future