KUCHING: There should not be any U-turn by the Education Ministry over its decision to abolish the Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) in the national education system for Primary 6 pupils.
Datuk Jonathan Chai, president of the Association of the Boards of Management of Aided Primary Schools in Kuching, Samarahan and Serian, said the opinions from the general public, especially among the parents and teachers, were very much divided as to whether to bring back UPSR or Pentaksiran Tingkatan Tiga (PT3).
“But I personally think that we are (already) in the right direction, charted by the (previous) Education Ministry to replace the examination-oriented approach with the school-based assessments in the primary schools.
“There should not be any U-turn for such policy, at least for as far as UPSR is concerned,” he told New Sarawak Tribune.
With school-based assessments, he said, students’ learning process could be continuously assessed, while intervention and remedial actions could be carried out immediately as and when necessary.
Chai said much has to be done by the ministry for the success of such reform, particularly, the professionalism of the teachers in carrying out the assessments must be enhanced by providing sufficient training.
Meanwhile, the administrative workloads of the teachers should be reduced to give way to prepare teaching materials and carry out any purposeful assessments of the students.
He suggested that the student to teacher ratio per class should ideally be kept at 25 to 1, which is presently impossible for some overcrowded classes in big schools in the urban areas.
On Sunday, newly-appointed Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek said her ministry is currently reviewing the UPSR and PT3 and is expected to make an announcement soon to address the issues and to determine the ministry’s directions.
She assured that she would take into consideration all views, criticisms and concerns of parents and stakeholders on education, in addressing the issues.
Chai further added that with a public examination like UPSR in place, parents tend to emphasise cognitive elements.
“Some parents think that UPSR could serve as a benchmark to assess the standard of learning acquired by their children at the primary school level.
“Some view that UPSR remains relevant and should be maintained as the exam would motivate the students to study hard and even help to keep the teachers committed to their teaching.
Meanwhile, others would have reservations and feel sceptical about the objectivity of the teachers in carrying out the classroom-based assessments.
However, he said, whatever the reason may be, the abolition of UPSR should be upheld at least for the moment unless and until the assessments report indicated otherwise.
Chai said in order to ensure the successful implementation of the educational reform, the ministry should be well prepared to improve the quality and professionalism of the assessments expected of the teachers and monitor the implementation of the policy from time to time.
“The policy seems to move in the right direction but there must be enough support for the teachers to carry out the task and there must be conscientious efforts to educate the parents too to participate in the learning process and upbringing of their children,” he said.
He hoped that the newly-appointed minister would look into the needs of providing facilities to set up smart classrooms for all the schools in the country to keep abreast with the latest innovative technologies and knowledge in the digital era.
Last year, the Education Ministry abolished the UPSR and PT3 to ensure that school-based assessments can be implemented effectively, to produce human capital with skills in various fields and not limited to the academic field only.
Former senior education minister Datuk Dr Mohd Radzi Md Jidin said the implementation of school-based assessments was actually not new as it had already started in 2011. However, teachers still focused too much on examinations to ensure students obtained excellent results.
