‘Ministry must take steps to stop rising delinquency’

PETALING JAYA: The Education Ministry has been asked to set up a special inter-ministerial committee to study and report student delinquency in schools.

Malaysia Crime Prevention Foundation ( MCPF) senior vice-chairman Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye, who made the call, said this was to ensure that the root causes can be identified and remedial action taken.

“The study is necessary to enable the authorities to gauge the seriousness of student delinquency and their involvement in crime, smoking, drugs and other social issues,” he said in a statement yesterday.

Lee said the special committee should include experts in the respective fields who can comprehend the situation and produce practical and long-term solutions to the student delinquency problem.

The committee should also examine and review the Education Act 1996 (Act 550) and other regulations to assess and determine whether these were still relevant and able to meet current challenges.

Lee said besides drug abuse, other social problems involving students like truancy, bullying and gangsterism must also be taken into account.

“It seems that there is an emerging pattern of aggressive behaviour among youths in Malaysia but unfortunately, there is insufficient data on how serious it is.

“We often read about student delinquency but we do not really know how serious the problem is,” Lee said.

Lee said the problem could also be linked with rising mental health illness in the country as the National Health and Morbidity Survey 2015 showed that about 4.2 million Malaysians suffered from mental problems.

The same survey also found that 39.7% of teenagers suffered from anxiety, followed by depression (18.3%) and stress (9.6%)

“It would therefore be appropriate to set up the special inter-ministerial committee to study the problem and have it analysed,’’ he added.