Election education to be in school syllabus to prepare youths for voting

The process of a general election will be part of the national education curriculum to prepare the 18-year-old youths to vote, according to a joint statement from the EC and the Education Ministry.

EC chief Azhar Azizan Harun and Education Minister Maszlee Malik, who met today, to iron out the implementation of election education in schools, read out the statement.

They said they both discussed the inclusion of election education in the school syllabus.

"EC will update all information related to the election process if there are any changes," they said in the statement.

"To ensure students and teachers obtain the latest information on the election process, we will introduce a 'QR Code' in the textbook," they revealed.

The QR code method was chosen to ensure the students received updated information without the need to amend textbooks, they pointed out.

They also plan to introduce a programme dubbed "Civic Education Programme - Road to School" next year.

The programme will be aimed at a total of 545,000 Form 4 and Form 6 students from 2,436 schools, they said.

Besides that, EC planned to conduct fora and dialogue in public universities to create awareness on the democracy and election process among the students there.

During these events, officers will explain the automatic voter registration system and the lowering of the voting age to 18 policy to students.

The Election Academy (APR), meanwhile, will train university students to become speakers and associate trainers so they can manage election awareness programmes and civic education on campus.

"At present, a total of 187 university students have undergone training and will become associate trainers," they said.

"The education minister has expressed his full support to all initiatives taken by EC and stated his ministry's readiness to assist the EC in implementing all its programmes in schools and in higher learning education institutions," read the statement. 

Both parties will sign a memorandum of understanding on the implementation of election education in schools and universities soon, it added.

Parliament had recently passed a constitutional amendment to lower the voting age from 21 to 18.

The Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara also passed a constitutional amendment to lower the qualification age for an elected representative to 18 and implement automatic voter registration.