The Malaysian Education Ministry proposed tougher measures against truancy among students on Friday, including empowering schools and the police to detain truants at entertainment centers and internet cafes.

Malaysian Education Minister Hishamuddin Tun Hussein said that the ministry would propose amendments to the law, if necessary, to do so.

The relevant committees under the ministry were working in this regard, he said after chairing a meeting of the Special Committee to Handle Student Indiscipline at the ministry in Putrajaya, the administrative center of the Malaysian Federal Government.

Malaysia's existing law and regulations did not provide police the power to detain truants while school administrators did not have the authority to enter entertainment premises.

Meanwhile, the minister said that the number of cases of student indiscipline dropped this year in the country, posting 1. 74 percent of the total number of students, while the number of student crimes between January and November remained at 0.3 percent.

Source: Xinhua