NIBONG TEBAL: The Education Ministry has decided that the reintroduction of the Primary School Achievement Test (UPSR) and the Form Three Assessment (PT3) will depend on the results of the tabling of the Malaysia Education Development Plan 2025 (PPPM 2025) that is due in three years’ time.
Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek (pic) said any decision to reintroduce both exams would need to referred to facts and data collected throughout the PPPM 2025 and not to existing tendencies.
"We understand parents’ concerns after the abolishment of the exams and actually this issue has gone through a long process with stakeholders, parents and teachers before the decision to abolish UPSR was made.
"So we have to table the results of the PPPM 2025 report first to implement improvements to the education system,” she told reporters here on Saturday (Dec 24) after meeting with Nibong Tebal residents at her service centre here.
She added that the ministry’s current stand was to strengthen school-based learning for students to improve, progress and develop their potential rather than an exam-based approach as a holistic development for children could not focus on one single aspect only.
"The ministry’s current stand is to strengthen existing school-based learning through a final academic test and not like UPSR or PT3,” she added.
On a separate issue, Fadhlina said that the ministry is committed to ensuring that the school session that was pushed to March last year will be returned to its original schedule in January soon, but could not be implemented next year as several justifications were needed, in accordance to the Education Act 1996.
She said any change to the school session needed to take the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM), Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM) and Sijil Tinggi Agama Malaysia (STAM) examinations schedules into consideration, along with local economic factors and the year-end floods.
The school session for 2022/2023 was changed to begin in March 2022 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and implementation of the movement control order.
The school session for 2023/2024 will begin on March 10 or 11 depending on the individual state.- Bernama
