Muhyiddin (centre front) together with the award recipients give the thumbs up during the function. — Bernama photo
KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013-2025 has begun to bear fruit as the gap between rural and urban schools is now narrowing, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said.
Muhyiddin, who is also Education Minister, said according to the results of the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination last year, it was clear that the national Grade Point Average between the students in rural and urban areas had narrowed by 0.01 point.
He said the urban students’ performance had showed an increase of 0.15 points from 4.68 points in 2012 to 4.83 points in 2013, while the performance of rural students had also increased by 0.16 points from 5.44 points in 2012 to 5.28 points last year.
“As such, I think the blueprint, which was launched last year, has begun to bear fruit, especially in narrowing the education gap between rural and urban students in stages.”
He said this at the national-level 2013 SPM Excellence Award presentation ceremony at Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) Victoria here yesterday. Also present were Education director-general Datuk Dr Khair Mohamad Yusof and SMK Victoria principal Maslan Buniran.
Muhyiddin said the public confidence in the blueprint must have been intensified after the overall performance of SPM candidates last year had increased by 0.15 points compared to the previous year.
Hence, he also expressed hope that the excellent performance would continue to be displayed so that the government’s aspiration to narrow the performance gap by 50 per cent based on sosio-economic status would materialise.
He said in order to produce excellent generation, all quarters must play their roles regardless of their location, religion and race.
“The ongoing educational transformation requires a high level of commitment from all quarters, especially teachers, who are the executive agents.
At the ceremony, Muhyiddin presented Excellence Student Award to 30 outstanding students who scored straight A+ and the Excellence School Award to 20 schools.
Fifteen teachers also received Special Teacher Award from Muhyiddin at the event. — Bernama