On 15 October 2025, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong gave Royal Assent to the Education (Amendment) Act 2025 (Act A1770), gazetted on 28 October 2025. Among other changes, Parliament has for the first time provided that secondary education may be made compulsory, backed by a criminal penalty of up to RM5,000 or six months’ imprisonment (or both) for parents who fail to enrol and retain their child in a secondary school.
At the date of this note, we have not seen a commencement order. Section 1(2) of Act A1770 provides that the Act comes into operation on a date to be appointed by the Minister by notification in the Gazette. Until that notification is published, the new section 32A — including the offence — does not bite. The pre-amendment regime under section 29A (compulsory primary education only) continues in the meantime. Readers should check the federal Gazette at lom.agc.gov.my before relying on the new provisions taking effect.
What the amendment actually does
The principal changes are three.
Compulsory education is redefined. Section 2 of the Education Act 1996 now defines “compulsory education” as both primary education (under section 29A(1)) and secondary education (under the new section 32A(1)).
A new section 32A is inserted, empowering the Minister to prescribe secondary education as compulsory by Gazette order, and requiring every parent whose child is a Malaysian citizen and who resides in Malaysia to enrol the child in a secondary educational institution and keep the child there for the duration of that secondary education. Contravention is an offence under section 32A(4), carrying the RM5,000 / six-month penalty. The Minister retains power to exempt any pupil or class of pupils.
The language of obligation is narrowed. Section 29A(2), as it stood before the amendment, placed the primary-education duty on “every parent who is a Malaysian citizen”. The amendment substitutes “every parent whose child is a Malaysian citizen and the child resides in Malaysia”. The same formulation carries into the new section 32A(2). The duty now attaches to the child’s citizenship, not the parent’s.
Who the amendment reaches, and who it does not
The shift from parent-citizenship to child-citizenship is the most consequential piece of the amendment for Sabah. It settles, on the face of the statute, that compulsory-education duties do not extend to non-citizen children — including the undocumented children commonly found in our state under the care of Malaysian guardians, foster families or relatives.
That is not, in itself, a denial of access. Compulsory education and access to education are different questions. The duty under sections 29A and 32A is about requiring attendance of citizen children; it does not govern whether a non-citizen child may attend a government school at all. That question is governed, as it has been since 2018, by Surat Pekeliling Ikhtisas Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia Bil. 3/2018 — Pengurusan Murid Bukan Warganegara di Sekolah Kerajaan dan Sekolah Bantuan Kerajaan, and by the 2019 Zero Reject Policy.
The existing pathway for non-citizen children
Where a child in Sabah is in the care of a Malaysian guardian but lacks a birth certificate, MyKid or passport, the relevant pathway is Paragraph 3.1(c) of the circular. In outline:
The guardian first applies to the nearest Pejabat Kebajikan Masyarakat Daerah (PKMD) for a Surat Akuan Penjagaan Kanak-Kanak from JKM. This is the gatekeeper document; nothing else moves without it. JKM will typically want to see the guardian’s MyKad, any police report, a statutory declaration, and will often conduct a home visit.
With the JKM letter in hand, the guardian completes the admission form prescribed under the Peraturan-Peraturan Pendidikan (Penerimaan Masuk Murid Ke Sekolah, Penyimpanan Daftar dan Syarat Bagi Pengekalan Murid Belajar di Sekolah) 1998 [PU(A) 275/1998], in three copies — Part I by the guardian, Part II by the headmaster. The form, the JKM letter, a copy of the guardian’s MyKad, the police report and statutory declaration, and a short covering letter are submitted to the school.
The school forwards the application to the Pejabat Pendidikan Daerah and thence to the Jabatan Pendidikan Negeri Sabah for approval. The prescribed fee is RM120 per year for primary and RM240 per year for secondary. Paragraph 4 of the circular gives the guardian a two-year grace period from admission within which to complete the child’s identity documentation.
Why the gap still matters
In our experience in Sabah, the Zero Reject Policy is inconsistently enforced at the school gate. Some children are admitted promptly once the JKM letter is produced; others are turned away and the family goes home. The amendment does nothing to close that gap; if anything, it sharpens the contrast between a citizen child whose non-attendance now triggers criminal liability on the parent, and a non-citizen child whose attendance can still quietly be refused.
The practical implication for guardians, teachers and NGOs is unchanged: the Surat Akuan Penjagaan from JKM remains the single most important document in the file. Everything else follows from that letter.