New SPM timetable a relief

THIS move by the Education Ministry is welcomed as it is a step to make things easier and more manageable.

The ministry said recently that it has taken stakeholders’ views and concerns into consideration for the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) timetable this year.

Examinations Syndicate director of examinations Adzman Talib said it has revised the proposed timetable to make it less packed.

Often we have had situations where students had to sit for more than two papers in one day.

Sometimes all the papers require a lot of reading and thinking.

This could lead to stress as students have to show within a span of one day their abilities in three different exam papers.

With this change, students will be able to better manage their studying time as they will have more time between papers to be prepared.

This will allow them to perform at their best and rule out lower performances because of fatigue.

When students are given enough time to recover from sitting for one paper, they will definitely be able to perform to the best of their ability.

This is definitely a good move. I believe students will be delighted with the new form of scheduling for the exams. Teachers will also be able to plan the prepara- tions for their students.

Two papers at the most a day would perhaps be one of the best changes made so far as previously the problem of overburdening the students during this critical exam could not be addressed effectively.

VINCENT D’SILVA President

Johor English Language Teaching Association