Muhyiddin (second right) presents a souvenir to a Umno veteran Ahmad Lutfi Abdul Rahman after opening the Sungai Siput Umno division delegation meeting and new Umno division building. — Bernama photo
SUNGAI SIPUT: Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin will be chairing a special meeting today to scrutinise the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) used for preparing the papers of the Primary School Achievement Test (UPSR) examination.
Muhyiddin, who is also Education Minister, said the meeting, which would be held in Putrajaya, would also be attended by the stakeholders involved including the top management of the ministry to ensure leak of the examination papers would not be repeated.
“The meeting will also focus on preparations for the resitting of the leaked Science and English papers on Sept 30.
“Normally, preparations for examinations will be handed to the (Malaysian) Examinations Syndicate (LPM) but I also must know how the process is implemented,” he said.
He told this to reporters after opening Sungai Siput Umno delegates meeting and its news building here yesterday.
Muhyiddin said the meeting would also touch on security of the examination papers and measures taken by other parties, who were also taking part to help the ministry in the case (of the leaked papers), including the police and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission(SKMM).
He said the question of security in the SOPs, from preparing the examination papers until the process of bringing them to school must be tightened and complied with, and the officer entrusted with this responsibility must uphold the trust given.
“What is important is the appointed officer is trustworthy, unfortunately there were cases of leaks happening, we cannot take lightly when it happens, must tighten the existing rules,” he said.
Muhyiddin also reiterated his call that parents and teachers must play an important role in calming the emotions of their children so they would not be stressed when resitting the examination at the end of the month.
“Under the ministry’s system, a pupil is still promoted to form one despite failing UPSR. But there are those in society who want to see their children obtain all As.
“There is stress as there is competition. What’s important is the role of parents to calm their children,” he said.
He said due to the leak, the government also had to bear double the cost for the two subjects as it had to prepare new questions, print them and pay the allowance of teachers who were given additional invigilating duties at the examination halls.
On Wednesday, LPM announced that the UPSR examination for the 018, 028 and 038 Science subjects which was scheduled for Thursday, was postponed following reports of leak in these examination papers.
The next day, Second Education Minister, Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh said the UPSR papers for English 1 and 2 had also been leaked and the pupils had to resit them.
LPM then announced Sept 30 as the new date of examination for the English 1 and 2 and Science papers. — Bernama