Students in a fix over ministry’s decision on trial SPM results

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KUCHING: The Education Ministry’s decision to prohibit the use of trial Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) results for entry into private pre-university and foundation programmes has put students and parents in a difficult situation.

Sarawak Teachers’ Union (STU) president Jisin Nyud said students had been taking SPM trial examination seriously which was why teachers were also putting a lot of effort to ensure the trial papers have the quality and standard required.

“By replicating the SPM papers, teachers are confident that their students can perform well during the real exam,” he said when contacted yesterday when asked to comment on the Education Ministry’s decision to prohibit the use of SPM trial results for entry into private pre-university and foundation programmes.

He added: “The country has been conducting trial SPM examinations for the past 30 years, why do we need to put an end to it? In fact, students said the trial SPM examination was tougher than the real examination.

“Besides, if students are going to use the actual SPM results which are supposed to be out at the end of February or early March, what are the students going to do from December to April or June?”

Jisin said it would not be possible for the examination assessors to cope if the SPM results had to be announced earlier such as in early January or February, as there were other things to look into such as the time taken for the assessors to receive the papers from other states and then marking them.

“They are only human and so the ministry needs to consider this.”

He said the trial SPM results had also helped students who did not have Internet access, especially those from the rural areas, adding that the trial results had enabled them to enrol into pre-university, foundation or matriculation when it was open for registration online.

“Students keen to go into foundation programmes will seek help from their teachers in school before going home to their respective villages which are out of Internet access.”

Jisin said for parents who could afford to send their children overseas, by the time their SPM results were out, some have already enrolled into some of the programmes and some even in class, studying.

“Isn’t this trial SPM results very helpful to the students? The Education Ministry has been trying its best to promote school-based assessment, better known as PBS. This is the perfect time that we should keep up with the system we have been using for decades.

“Since institutions of higher learning – locally or internationally – have recognised the country’s trial SPM results, why do we need to put an end to the system that has brought us many benefits?”

Considering that the system allowing trial SPM results for entry into private pre-university and foundation programmes had produced “a number of intellectuals and leaders” in the country, Jisin called on the Education Ministry to maintain the system.