THE Examination Syndicate
‘HOTS’ TEST: Parents must learn to look beyond As, says Examination Syndicate director
is urging parents to look beyond As, but many among the latter remain dissatisfied with the ‘rushed’ implementation of the new UPSR format. Separately, the Education Ministry says the criterion for entry to fully residential schools will be relaxed to 3As and 3Bs.
THE Examination Syndicate, in the face of a nationwide outcry over the Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) results, defended the new UPSR format yesterday, saying parents should learn to look beyond As.
Examination Syndicate director Datin Nawal Salleh said the UPSR was merely a tool to measure the academic aspect of children’s development.
Nawal said, however, the examination had become more about how many As a student obtained.
“Our concern is also that schools will not use the data from this year’s results to help pupils, especially those who did not perform well.”
She urged them to use the results data to help in education development and improve the performance of pupils, especially those who got all Es, instead of using it to gauge the school’s performance.
On Thursday, schools, parents and students reeled in shock when the UPSR results were announced. Only 4,896 achieved straight As under the new format this year, compared with last year’s 38,344.
On claims that the change of format was carried out hastily, Nawal said the examination’s format was not changed for the past 10 years.
“The only thing that was different are the questions (in the past 10 years),” she added.
She said the format change this year was made to measure pupils’ ability to use their higher order thinking skills (HOTS).
“This is also to acknowledge pupils who have an extra edge over others. How do you recognise excellent pupils who can use a wide range of vocabulary and put them together in correct sentences, displaying strong linguistic skills? The change will give them the recognition (they deserve) and this was reflected in this year’s UPSR results,” she said.
She also said the HOTS element had been in the pupils’ learning process since 2011 and it was included in this year’s UPSR papers.
Nawal said there were other aspects to a pupil’s education, namely emotional, spiritual and physical elements, which were in line with the education philosophy to create a well-rounded person.
Those who sat for this year’s examinations also got other evaluation reports, namely on school assessment; physical, sports and curriculum activities; and, psychometric assessment on top of their UPSR results.
On claims that the briefing to teachers regarding the format change was not done clearly, Nawal said the format was only a guideline for teachers.
She dismissed a social media post claiming that only pupils who received 90 per cent and above for their papers would get As.
Meanwhile, the Examination Syndicate has received 20 applications to re-check the UPSR papers.