PAPAR: More rural schools in Sabah achieved full passes in last year’s Sijil Tinggi Pelajaran Malaysia (STPM) than their urban counterparts.
State education director Datuk Jame Alip disclosed yesterday that 27 of 51 schools in the interior obtained full passes and this showed that the improving quality of education in rural schools.
“This is what we want, to reduce the gap between urban and rural schools. It shows that students in rural schools are also able to achieve excellence despite the lack of facilities,” said Jame after officially announcing the STPM results at SMK Takis here yesterday.
The overall performance in last year’s STPM results in Sabah, nonetheless, recorded an improvement with 51 schools achieving full passes compared to only 35 in 2013.
The top 10 schools that achieved full passes in the STPM last year were SMK Takis (Papar) with the highest GPS, 3.02, followed by SMK Merotai Besar (Tawau) with 2.93, SMK Elopura II (Sandakan), SMK Putatan (Penampang), SMK Jalan Apas (Tawau), SMK Kunak, Kota Kinabalu High School, SMK Madai (Kunak), SMK Tansau (Penampang) and SM St Mary’s (Sandakan).
Jame announced that Sabah’s STPM results last year also recorded an upturn, with 5,903 or 97.26 per cent out of 6,069 candidates achieving full passes, compared to 96.12 per cent in 2013, although there was a drop in the number of candidates, with 2013 recording 7,518 candidates.
In terms of quality, he said the CGPA (cumulative grade point average) had also showed an increase of 0.12 point from 2.36 in 2013 to 2.48 last year.
However, the number of candidates achieving 5Ps (principles) last year dropped to 1.91 per cent (116 candidates) from 1.92 per cent (144 candidates) in 2013, albeit a decrease of only 0.01 per cent. The number of candidates achieving 4Ps on the other hand recorded an increase of 4.46 per cent, from 55.68 per cent in 2013 to 60.14 per cent last year.
There had also been a decrease in the number of subjects showing improvement in results, whereby 15 subjects, including General Studies, Bahasa Melayu, Mathematics, Information and Communication Technology and Physics, showing an upturn in results, with Accounting showing the highest improvement, based on the number of candidates passing the subject.
Literature in English, on the other hand, has the highest decline in passing percentage, with a difference of 20.83 per cent between last year and 2013.
The number of candidates achieving excellent results based on CGPA increased from 15 in 2013 to 16 last year.
Two students from Sabah were selected by the Malaysian Examination Council to receive national recognition via the STPM Excellent Awards, namely, Fong Jian Yip from SM St Mary’s (Sandakan) and Amirah Abdin from SMK Arshad (Kota Belud).
The STPM 2014 results were released nationwide yesterday, for candidates who sat for the examination, which had been reformed into a tri-semester mode, whereby candidates were to sit for examination in three semesters, a mode that had been implemented for the second year last year.
Candidates sat for the first semester exam during their Lower Six year in 2013 from November 19 to 25, 2013, the second semester exam from May 19 to 22, 2014, and the third semester exam on November 3 to 10, 2014. Results from all three semesters, including those of their coursework are accumulated to determine the final overall results.
They were also allowed to resit for subjects held on November 3 to November 26 last year.
Candidates can also inquire or apply to have their results reviewed within two weeks from the date of the results’ release. More information can be obtained from www.mpm.edu.my.