HOLISTIC APPROACH TO LEARNING
Education D-G reveals pupils’ achievements as a whole in assessment report
FOR the first time since 1987, the Education Ministry did not highlight the number of As obtained by pupils in the Year Six UPSR when it announced the results yesterday. There were no comparisons between students, schools and states. This policy shift is the way forward towards a less examination-oriented education system.
NO “most straight A” scorers, no “best schools”. For the first time since 1987, there is no special emphasis given to the academic achievements of pupils in the annual announcement of the Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) results.
Instead, Education directorgeneral Datuk Dr Amin Senin yesterday announced the candidates’ achievements as a whole via the Primary School Assessment Report (PSAR).
Not only were there no mentions of best schools or states with the most straight “A” scorers, there were also no statistics of rural-urban school comparisons, nor school-to-school match-ups.
Amin said starting this year, the annual announcement would comprise not only the UPSR results, but also feature three other components.
These components are Sports, Physical and Co-curricular Activities Assessment; Classroom Assessment and Psychometric Assessment.
As for UPSR, emphasis was given only on the minimum standard achievement. Pupils, he said, were required to obtain at least a “D” in all subjects.
“There was an increase of 1.6 per cent this year compared with last year, where 293,514 (68.1 per cent) candidates achieved the minimum standard compared with 293,184 last year,” he said yesterday.
The percentage of pupils who did not achieve minimum standard in at least one subject was reduced by 0.9 per cent with 130,027 (30.2 per cent) pupils this year as opposed to 137,262 (31.1 per cent) last year, he said.
Amin said the percentage of pupils who did not achieve the minimum standard in any of the subjects saw a fall of 0.7 per cent with 1.5 per cent (6,663 pupils) this year compared with 2.2 per cent (9,519) last year.
At the national-level, Amin said 8,958 pupils scored straight As this year compared with 4,896 last year, which was an increase of one per cent.
Meanwhile, for the Physical Activities, Sports and Co-curricular assessment (PAJSK), he said 24,612 (5.6 per cent) of the pupils were classified as “very active and committed” in co-curricular involvement and exemplified individual potential in the activities joined.
“A total of 302,018 (68.9 per cent) candidates were classified as having active and committed co-curricular involvement and exemplified satisfactory interest in the activities joined, while 100,331 (22.9 per cent) candidates achieved satisfactory cocurricular involvement,” he added.
As for the national Physical Fitness Standard (Segak), Amin said 40,957 (9.5 per cent) candidates recorded “very high” fitness levels and 168,101 (38.8 per cent) candidates recorded high fitness levels.
“On the other hand, 189,929 (43.9 per cent) candidates were recorded as ‘fit’ and 3,644 (7.8 per cent) candidates recorded unfit fitness levels,” he said.
Meanwhile, in terms of body mass index (BMI), 268,314 (63.4 per cent) pupils recorded normal BMI; 56,584 (13.4) are at risk of being obese; 58,294 (13.8 per cent) are obese; and 40,347 (9.5 per cent) are underweight.
For the psychometric assessment, candidates were tested on multiple intelligences.
“A total of 77.7 per cent of candidates showed existential awareness, 77.3 per cent showed intrapersonal skills while 68.9 per cent showed interpersonal skills.
“Another 63.2 per cent were deemed naturalistic, 54.4 per cent kinesthetic, 50.3 per cent showed tendency towards mathematical logic and 43.4 per cent towards visual space,” he said.
Amin said 373 candidates achieved exemplary competence and 171 candidates achieved exemplary competence in the Primary School Alternative Assessment, which is in place of UPSR for 3,095 special needs pupils.
In the fourth and final assessment, which is the classroom assessment, he said pupils’ achievements would be evaluated and handled by their respective school.
Amin said in summary, the pupils’ PSAR performances were good and would pave the way for greater future improvement.
He said it would unfair to evaluate pupils based on their academic achievements alone, and that consideration must be given to their total development, including physical, emotional and spiritual aspects.
“Each pupil is unique in their own way and it is only fair that the evaluation takes note of all of their best aspects.
“Everyone should bear in their mind that UPSR is only a checkpoint to measure a pupil’s ability to read, write, count and his reasoning skills during six years of primary education.
“Priority should be given to pupils’ development as a whole.” Additional reporting by Aina Nasa