We should support our children regardless of their test scores

WHATEVER results our children get — excellent or otherwise — we, as parents, need to give them our continuous support.

With the results of the Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) out, and the PT3 examination results on the way, it is that time of the year when students, parents and teachers get anxious.

While we tell ourselves that what is important is the learning development of our children and not the number of “As” on the result slips, we do end up tallying the scores, year after year.

Thanks to the Education Ministry, we can finally stop counting the “As” as it is going for a holistic assessment.

I support the call by the education minister to disallow the celebration of “As”, and the comparison of schools based only on academic performance.

This is a step forward in getting the community to start looking at students’ achievement and performance from different perspective.

I urge parents and educators to make a shift from building an “As” society, to that of a holistic performance culture.

We need to acknowledge that every child has his own learning development zone.

We should stop comparing our child’s performance with children of different abilities, skills and talents.

We should start valuing the development of learning by looking at the students’ learning process and their level of progress, rather than merely counting the number of “As” they achieved in an examination.

By looking at the learning process and progress, we would be able to understand our children better and be more appreciative of their effort at learning.

As much as we want our children to do well in exams, we need to remind ourselves and teach our children that there is always room for improvement, whenever the outcome does not meet initial expectations.

Avoid putting unnecessary pressure on children as this could lead them to depression.

Instead, we should always offer them a helping hand, inspire them to do better and give them moral support.

Reward and motivation should be inclusive: not only should those who excel be rewarded, but also those who do not.

This will act as motivation for our children to do better the next time.

Let us reflect on how we can play our role as parents, teachers and members of the community during this daunting period our children are facing.