School Guide

Looking at the Assessment System in Chinese Schools

Published by SchoolAdvisor | Feb 10, 2015

The minimum requirement for a Malaysian student to gain entry into a government secondary school is UPSR, the primary school standard 6 examination. Normally students are enrolled in the school at the age of 13 and is based on the UPSR result.Students who pass UPSR will be placed in Form 1 (Tingkatan 1) class, while those who failed their Bahasa Melayu subject in UPSR will be placed in a probation (peralihan or remove) class, where they will be taught the basics of the secondary education national syllabus, before allowing them to move to Form 1 the following year.UEC or Unified Examination Certificate is historically British based. In Malaysia, the UEC is an internal exam strictly for independent Chinese schools and not open for public, unlike IGCSE. So students have to undergo a Chinese school education if they wish to take UEC.The registration fee for UEC is very affordable especially compared to other internationally recognized papers at approximately RM 300+ for the whole exam.The UEC is available in three levels: Junior Middle (UEC-JML), Vocational (UEC-V), and Senior Middle (UEC-SML). Examinations for the UEC-JML and UEC-V are only available in the Chinese language.The UEC-SML is recognized as a qualification for entrance into many tertiary educational institutions around the world, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Australia, Canada and many others.The Malaysian government currently does not recognise the UEC for entrance into local universities. However, The United Chinese Schools Teachers' Association (Jiao Zong) and United Chinese School Committees' Association (Dong Zong) also collectively known as Dong Jiao Zong continues to seek negotiations in recognizing the UEC with the Ministry of Education.UEC graduates are still eligible for PTPTN loans and local teacher training colleges as long as they receive a pass in BM and achieve distinction in three other subjects.Some Chinese Independent High Schools opt to teach the national secondary school curriculum in Malay alongside the independent curriculum (in Chinese) and make it mandatory for their students to sit for government standardized tests (PMR, SPM or even STPM) providing the students an opportunity to obtain government-recognized certificates.However, this may result in teachers rushing through the subjects or holding night classes to accommodate the students.Don’t forget to LIKE us on Facebook and receive updates and consultation on all matters related to Private and International schools in Malaysia.