Articles

UPSR format change-good or bad?

Published by SchoolAdvisor | Nov 15, 2016

It is happening again! The Education Minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid announced that the UPSR exams could very likely resemble the Form 3 PT3 tests soon.

This also means that assessments would include more Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) to improve student’s critical thinking ability in an effort to develop 21^st century thinkers and also to move away from a system which focused too much on scoring top grades.

The Education Minister also added that if the UPSR examinations do become more assessment-based, the only completely centralised examination system a student will take is Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM).

Who will it affect?

• Year 1 students as the change is said to be implemented earlier
• Primary school teachers will need to attend more courses to understand the format
• Tuition centres need to revise their teaching methods to suit the new change

Parents weigh-in on the pros and cons

"100% exam-based evaluation was a real pressure to parents & children, so this is good!”

“Students can definitely benefit in terms of developing their thinking skills and tocompete with other global learners”.    

“It’ll prepare students for a university-like grading system”.

"While the idea is commendable, this gives teachers the power to decide on gradeswhich may become a problem as they can be biased "  

“Primary school students are too young for an assessment based grading. Implementation in secondary school is enough”.

 

While we are unsure when the change will take place, one thing for sure is that it will be a long work in progress (a rewarding one, we hope!)