UPSR passing average dropped because of English, Maths – education officer

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PENAMPANG: Lower passes in the English and Mathematics subjects in last year’s Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) examination were the reasons why the passing average for the district dropped by 2.76 per cent.

District education officer Denis Gompion said in 2010, the passing average was 56.56 per cent but last year, it was only 53.80 per cent.

He said this at the motivation seminar for pupils in the district who will be sitting for their Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) examination this year and prize presentation to pupils who scored 5As and 7As in last year’s UPSR examination which was officiated by Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister cum Penampang member of parliament Tan Sri Bernard Dompok here, yesterday.

“A post-mortem by the district education office revealed that the decline in the UPSR passing average was due to the low number of passes in the English and Mathematics subjects,” he said.

Denis disclosed that in the English subject, only 63.53 per cent of the pupils who sat for the examination passed while in Mathematics, it was 72.28 per cent.

This year, the district education office would be taking drastic steps to address the problem and improve the pupils’ achievements in the two subjects, he said and expressed confidence that it would be successful with the hard work as well as commitment of all headmasters and teachers in the district.

“However, even though there has been a decrease in terms of percentage, there has been an increase in the aspect of quality achievement in the district’s average grade (Grade Purata Daerah) from 1.60 in 2010 to 2.75 last year.

“This can be seen from the number of pupils who obtained 5As and 7As in their UPSR examination last year with 62 compared to only 55 in 2010,” he said.

Denis also disclosed that the passing average for the Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) last year had shown an increase of 1.14 per cent from 73. 61 per cent in 2010 to 74.75 per cent last year.

“The number of students who scored all As also increased from 72 in 2010 to 85 last year,” he said, adding that the SPM examination results for Penampang were also positive as the passing average increased to 95.73 per cent in 2011 compared to 94.87 per cent in 2010.

Denis added that the district’s GDP for SPM was the best in Sabah at 4.96, compared to 5.13 in 2010.