KUCHING: Sarawak Teachers Union (STU) believes that it is not a good idea to scrap the 2020 Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination.
STU president Adam Prakash Abdullah, responding to Democratic Action Party (DAP) Sarawak chairman Chong Chieng Jen’s call to do away with the SPM as it was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, said unlike the UPSR and PT3 examinations, SPM played a role as an admission criterion into institutions of higher learning.
“If we are to award SPM certificates based on school exam results, then we will have difficulties in ensuring standardisation.
“How is an A+ in School A the same as an A+ in School B? There will be issues of reliability and validity of the certs awarded, thus putting the students involved at a great disadvantage,” he said on Tuesday (Jan 5).
Adam said moreover, the 2020 SPM candidates did not have any classroom-based evaluation scores that could be used as merit points to award the SPM certificates.
He said STU would urge parents and the public to focus on supporting the students in their quest and not derail them from their mission of completing their SPM exams with flying colours.
“Qualifications in life are only acquired through examinations and students will later come to realise that they need certain qualifications to pass a certain stage in the job process.”
He also noted that examinations can be extremely stressful indeed but they do hold value and can be a good life lesson if looked at with a positive attitude.
“Throughout life, we are guaranteed to face hardships and have obstacles thrown at us from all angles. We must not allow these obstacles to pull us back but rather take it on the chin, persevere and move forward.”
Understanding the dangers of having students present physically to sit for the SPM examination during the pandemic, Adam hoped that the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health could come up with an agreeable and safe solution to ensure that the candidates sit for the examination as scheduled.
