KOTA KINABALU: Two hundred and forty-one Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) 2020 candidates in Sabah attained straight A’s in all the subjects they sat for.
Education Department director Datuk Dr Mistirine Radin said that this was an increase of about 0.13 percent from the achievement in 2019 whereby only 198 candidates attained straight A’s in all the subjects they sat for.
She said in her statement which provided the assessment on the achievement of SPM candidates in Sabah for the year 2020 that a total of 33,454 candidates from government schools and government assisted schools sat for the examination.
“The overall performance of SPM candidates in Sabah has shown an improvement in terms of quality which is measured using the State Average Grade (GPN) achievement whereby a small GPN value means a better achievement.
“The SPM GPN for the year 2020 is 5.34 as compared to 5.38 in 2019 which shows an overall improvement by 0.04 points,” she said.
Mistirine also said that the candidates will only be issued the SPM certificate when they attain the minimum grade E in Bahasa Melayu and in Sejarah (History).
Out of the 33,454 candidates who sat for the examination in 2020, about 90.42 percent are qualified for a certificate, she said.
Again, the recent achievement has bested the 2019 attainment which was only 87.79 percent.
Mistirine also shared the feat of 15 schools in Sabah, whereby all their students are qualified to be issued the SPM certificate.
Other achievements for the State included gaining 100 percent passes for 33 subjects that SPM candidates registered for in Sabah, including English literature and Tari (dance); and five of the core subjects in SPM showed improvements in terms of quality.
The five core subjects with improved performance are English, Pendidikan Islam, Science, Pendidikan Moral (Moral Studies) and Sejarah (History).
She said 11 out of 24 District Education branches have attained the district average grade that exceeded the State Average Grade achievement which is 5.34 in 2020.
She also said that 211 schools were involved in the SPM examination in 2020, whereby 60 are located at urban settings and have attained 91.12 percent passes, while 151 schools are located in rural areas and have attained a passing rate of 90.59 percent.
“This shows that the gap in passing percentage between urban and rural schools is decreasing which is 0.53 percent in 2020 and 1.34 percent in 2019,” she said.
Mistirine congratulated all the candidates who have attained excellence and prayed they would continue in the path of excellence in their future field and contribute to their own development, their family, the community and also bring further growth to the country.
“I am also proud of the teachers who have succeeded in educating and guiding the students to achieve excellence in their examination results despite being challenged by the pandemic,” she said.