PUTRAJAYA: Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) 2023 candidates nationwide achieved better scores compared with the previous year, says Education director-general Azman Adnan.
He also said the rate of absenteeism was lower for the national examination, thanks to two years of face-to-face schooling since the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
“Carrying out the 2022/2023 and 2023/2024 academic sessions in a face-to-face manner has given candidates the space to improve the quality of learning in order to face the 2023 SPM examinations better,” Azman said when announcing the SPM 2023 results analysis yesterday.
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The national average grade (GPN) improved by 0.14 points to 4.60, compared with 4.74 in 2022.
A lower GPN score indicates better performance.
The GPN of urban and rural candidates was 4.58 and 5.01, respectively, for SPM 2023 – an improvement from the previous year when the scores were 4.73 and 5.16.
Azman said about 93.5% (349,297) of the candidates qualify for the SPM certificate, an increase from 91.6% in 2022.
“This has been the best result since 2013 when Bahasa Malaysia and History became compulsory passes in order to qualify for the certificate,” he added.
He also said the number of candidates scoring all As (A+, A- and A) had gone up to 11,713 (3.1%) compared with 10,109 (2.7%) in 2022.
Additionally, 131,489 candidates (35.2%) obtained at least a pass (minimum grade E) in all the subjects taken.
The proportion of students who passed increased from 34.3% in 2022.
Overall, he said SPM 2023, compared with SPM 2022, showed that 66 subjects recorded an increase in performance, 25 subjects recorded a decrease and four subjects showed unchanged or stable performance.
Out of the core subjects, Moral Education recorded the highest increase this time, going up 0.2 points to 4.66 in 2023.
Azman also said only 373,525 out of the 383,685 new candidates who registered for the examinations showed up for the papers. About 10,000 of them did not turn up.
While acknowledging the high number, Azman said it decreased significantly compared to SPM 2022, when 30,000 of them did not sit for the exams.
“We will (identify) and analyse the reasons and carry out interventions to ensure this issue is properly tackled.
“The analysis shows that the Education Ministry is always committed to providing access to quality education and ensuring equal opportunities for all candidates across the country.
“The ministry will also continue to implement existing initiatives, in addition to the Digital Education and Humane Education Policy, that will help empower quality education in Malaysia,” he added.
A total of 395,870 candidates sat for the national examination between December 2023 and March this year.
