Happy with clarification on status of UPSR
I WAS pleased by the clarification given by the Malaysian Examination Syndicate (MES) that the UPSR is meant to be a checkpoint tool and not a “high-stakes assessment” that causes stress for pupils, parents and teachers.
This clarification is very pertinent at this juncture as the UPSR is due to end this week.
However, the MES should be very loud and clear on this as the message could be quickly hijacked unknowingly by misconception and misrepresentation.
The MES must ensure first of all that the school leaders and teachers alike internalise this and everyone in the education sector is on the same page. Only then can the very purpose of the UPSR be translated into reality.
I also refer to the letter “Exams rate progress of learners” ( The Star, Sept 26). I feel that the public, especially parents, have to be made more well-informed of the objective of education assessments especially the formative kind.
We call this assessment for learning. If it is for the purpose of certification, then it would be in the form of a summative assessment.
The conduct of assessments for learning should not be a one or one-and-a-half-hour exam paper to assess six years of learning!
The argument that holding examinations such as UPSR for primary level pupils is necessary to prevent cultural shock later on in life does not hold water.
Every assessment, whether done centrally or at the school level, should encourage students to exhibit what they know or what they can do.
Students are expected to prove that they have learnt well. In order to do so, the assessment should be done periodically and be an integral part of the teaching and learning sessions and not apart from it.
The only difference between a centrally administered examination and a school-based one is the psyche elevation of the process.
Why do we have to subject young children to this form of stress? They must enjoy their learning and even the assessments.
Like it or not, students and parents have been crippled by examinations to the point that other forms of creative and active learning are neglected to make way for the examination style of learning.
This is one reform of the education system that is really needed now.
We inherited a system where examinations are meant to force students to learn, and in the process they become the means to compare one student with another instead of as a checkpoint tool for one’s own learning. Parents also tend to use examination results to assess the effectiveness of a particular school.
Hence, the whole evaluation of teaching and learning becomes slanted at best and unkind at worst for those schools which put more effort to the joy of learning, happiness of interaction and the satisfaction of skills improvement.
We must change the mindset of parents first in order to bring change to the delivery of teaching in our primary schools.
Let’s work towards making UPSR a school-based assessment to fulfil the purpose of a checkpoint system administered by the school like the International General Certificate of Secondary Education curriculum (an English language curriculum offered to students to prepare them for International Baccalaureate, A Level and BTEC Level 3).
We must change the mindset of parents first in order to bring change to the delivery of teaching in our primary schools.