KUCHING: Students unable to sit for their Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) if they had tested positive for Covid-19, are expected to re-sit their SPM papers in April.
According to the State Education Director Dr Norisah Suhaili, this is not something new as they experienced the same thing last year.
“Students who are unable to sit for their examination (due to being tested positive for Covid-19) will be given the opportunity to re-sit the examination on a date to be determined later.
“So the three students from SMK St Joseph, who tested positive for Covid-19, will re-sit their SPM papers which they missed in April.
“What is for sure, the questions will of course be different sets but in the same format,” she said at a press conference at SMK St Joseph here today.
She added for the SMK St Joseph students, it would only involve Bahasa Melayu (BM) and Bahasa Inggeris (BI) papers as they would not be able to attend the first week of SPM.
Elaborating, she said those unable to sit for the listening, speaking or practical tests (as a result of being tested positive for Covid-19) will also take the tests in April.
According to Dr Norisah, a total of 72 candidates or 0.2 percent in 24 centres throughout the state could not attend the BM speaking test, BM listening test (0.8 percent), BI listening test (0.8 percent), Physics practical test (0.5 percent), Chemistry practical test (0.5 percent) and Biology practical test (0.5 percent).
“The numbers differ because the papers or tests were held on different days,” she said.
In the meantime, she stressed that any instance of a Covid-19 positive close contact will not be allowed to sit for the exam at the scheduled time to curb the spread of the virus.
