SiPKPM — Malaysia's AI-Enhanced Student Tracking System for Early Dropout Detection

Malaysia's Ministry of Education has long run SiPKPM (Student Tracking System) to identify students who have dropped out or are at risk of doing so, from primary through secondary school. In 2024 the ministry enhanced the system with AI to help teachers and school leaders detect at-risk students earlier for timely intervention, according to deputy director-general Dr Mohd Azam Ahmad, who briefed Malaysia's Parliament (Dewan Rakyat) on the system in February 2025.
The ministry reported that absenteeism among Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) exam candidates fell from 'tens of thousands' historically to 8,076 candidates absent for all written papers as of 6 February 2025, for the 2024 SPM cohort. Flagged students can access one of 18 forms of assistance the ministry offers to at-risk students, including financial aid, coordinated through the Ministry of Education together with state Education Departments and district education offices.
No published evaluation isolates the AI component's contribution from the ministry's other concurrent interventions (financial aid, outreach visits), so the reported absentee decline cannot be attributed to the AI enhancement alone. The parliamentary briefing did not disclose the underlying model, its accuracy, or any bias testing across regions or student demographics.

Read the full analysis: https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2025/02/14/ai-enhanced-student-tracking-system-to-reduce-spm-dropouts-says-education-ministry