2020 SPM: Formulate substitute as situation still not safe, says DAP S’wak
KUCHING: Democratic Action Party (DAP) Sarawak is advising the Ministry of Education (MoE) to formulate an alternative assessment measure to substitute the 2020 Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination for the issuance of the certificates, given the four-digit daily new Covid-19 cases for the past two weeks.
If the previous records of daily new Covid-19 cases before MoE decided to postpone the public examination twice were anything to go by, the state’s party chairman Chong Chieng Jen said it seemed it would not be safe to proceed with the examination scheduled to start on Feb 22.
“The numbers have escalated from double-digit new cases at the time of the first postponement, to triple-digit new cases at the time of the second postponement to now four-digit new cases daily,” said Chong in a statement.
While the SPM is an important method of assessing the knowledge of the students, Chong opined there were also other assessment methods that can be adopted, as even international examinations like O-Level, A-Level and International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) were cancelled last year.
“If the boards of such international examinations can cancel the examinations and substitute other assessment methods with examinations, I can’t see why the MoE of Malaysia cannot formulate other tests to substitute the 2020 SPM exams for the issuance of the SPM certificates.”
Chong remarked the country was in an extraordinary time and the MoE has to come up with measures to cope with the situation without putting the students at great risk.
“The incessant postponements of the 2020 SPM exams are just not the solution to the problem. Forcing them to go to the exam halls to sit through the exams in this Covid-19 pandemic is also not the solution.”
Therefore, Chong called upon the MoE to quickly implement an alternative assessment measure so that the students can proceed with their further studies without unnecessary delays and hardship.
“It is easy for those critics to insist on having the SPM exams, but one has to put himself in the shoes of the students and the mental stress and anxiety that they are put through under the present circumstances.”