Mahdzir: Exam certs replaced for free

Fees waived if proof given that documents were lost in floods, says Education Minister

PUTRAJAYA: Flood victims can get their exam certificates replaced for free, says Education Minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid.

He said the RM30 replacement fee would be waived if there was proof that the documents were lost or destroyed in the floods.

The replacement application form can be downloaded from the Examinations Syndicate website at lp.moe.gov.my.

Certificates issued after the year 2000 can be replaced in an hour, but it will take a week to replace those issued before that, he said after the ministry’s Integrity Day celebration here yesterday.

On another matter, Mahdzir said parents who have issues with the recent SPM examination could contact their respective state education departments.

“We have different panels in the Examinations Syndicate that look into the questions for all subjects.

“The panels will assess the questions to determine what’s suitable for SPM.

“I believe they have given due consideration to all the questions that were selected.”

He was responding to a letter published in The Star on Nov 9, in which a reader from Penang had called on the Examinations Syndicate not to penalise students severely for misreading Paper 1 of the 2017 English SPM exam.

In the continuous writing section, worth 50 points, students were given five options to choose from.

The first option reads: “If you had the opportunity to move to another part of Malaysia, where would you choose to live? Explain your choice.”

“We haven’t received any complaints about this question,” said Mahdzir.

Earlier, during the event, the ministry’s secretarygeneral Datuk Seri Alias Ahmad said the ministry received 3,450 disciplinary cases from 2010 to October this year.

More than half of the cases involved absenteeism. The second highest offence was related to financial management.

“Other cases include drug use, criminal offences, indiscipline, and sexual harassment,” Alias said, adding that action was taken against 1,996 civil servants, of which, 947 were sacked.

Some did not show up for work for more than 2,000 days during the course of their employment. This was usually in the rural areas.

The main excuse given by errant civil servants for not turning up for work were family and personal problems.

Other reasons were stress, financial issues and having to cope with young children.