KUALA LUMPUR, June 18 — The deputy president of the P-Hailing Organisation of Malaysia estimates 20 per cent of the 403,637 post-SPM examination students to enter the food delivery industry, known locally as p-hailing, as riders this year due to job and financial constraints.

Abdul Hakim Abdul Rani said many of them are likely to take up jobs in the gig economy pending acceptance into universities though some may continue to work even after, Mingguan Malaysia, the Sunday edition of Malay daily Utusan Malaysia, reported today.

"It is the job of the parents to ensure their kids get a good education but the SPM leavers must be aware of their families plight. Times are tough and people are struggling to make ends meet.

"I'm sure we will see an increase of around 20 per cent of registrations for p-hailing and that's due to the times. Things are difficult, people are struggling for money resulting in them not continuing their studies after SPM,” he was quoted as saying.

The newspaper previously reported on June 1 that more than 458,000 SPM graduates are estimated not to further their studies in the next three years.

It cited statistics from an unnamed source showing that 48.74 per cent or 180,680 SPM graduates in 2021, an increase from the 35.16 per cent, or 115,939 SPM graduates in 2020, stopped their education after taking the final secondary school examination in Form Five.

According to the newspaper, there were three contributing factors to this and among them was the inability for post SPM students to pay the cost of university education as well as the perception that university graduates would earn the same starting pay as secondary school leavers.

The Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) reported on February 17 this year that of a total of 6,657 p-hailing workers, 97.71 per cent were youths aged 15 to 30, while the remaining 2.29 per cent were senior citizens aged 60 and above.

The DOSM study conducted from March 1 to December 31, 2022 found that most p-hailing workers had an education level of SPM or SPM Vocational or equivalent amounting to 39.54 per cent, diploma or equivalent at 23.24 per cent and Bachelor's degree holders are 11.79 percent.

The findings also show that 0.21 per cent of p-hailing workers do not attend school and 0.99 per cent do not have any academic qualifications.