PUTRAJAYA: The 2019 Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia results show a better performance with a National Average Grade (GPN) of 4.86 compared to 4.89 recorded in 2018.
Education director-general Dr Habibah Abdul Rahim said a total of 8,876 or 2.28 per cent of the candidates obtained grade A+, A, and A- in all subjects in 2019 compared to 8,436 or 2.15 per cent in the previous year.
The percentage of candidates who are eligible to be awarded the SPM certificate also increased by 0.33 per cent, where 86.72 per cent (337,773) candidates who sat for the examination last year are eligible to receive the certificate, from 86.39 per cent (338,350 candidates) in 2018, she said.
“The number of candidates who obtained at least five credits including Bahasa Melayu and a pass for History is 246,645,” she said when announcing the 2019 SPM result analysis at the Ministry of Education here today.
A smaller GPN indicates better performance of the candidates.
In 2015, the GPN was 5.08, which was improved in 2016 (5.05) and 2017 (4.90).
A total of 389,498 candidates sat for SPM in 2019.
Habibah said 307,445 or 78.93 per cent of the candidates were able to master two languages by obtaining at least a pass for Bahasa Melayu and English Language subjects.
On the location-based performance, she said the achievement of candidates in the urban areas was better than those in the rural areas.
“The difference has caused the gap between the urban and rural areas to increase by 0.01 per cent in 2019 compared to 2018,” she said.
Habibah said the overall results also showed that 56 per cent of the 2019 SPM candidates were able to answer the Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) questions.
HOTS was introduced in the SPM examination in 2014 to test the candidates’ capability to apply knowledge in a new situation, to analyse, evaluate and innovate when answering their examination questions.
When asked which state recorded the best 2019 SPM results, Habibah said the MOE preferred to focus more on the candidates’ performance rather than on the state’s. – Bernama
