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 21st 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).
"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”.