Ninety-three pupils of the Sek Jen Keb (Tamil) Serdang in Kuala Lumpur were today made to pay for a mistake made by their school in signing them up for the wrong paper in the "Primary School Assessment Examination" (UPSR).

Examinations Board Director Yaakob Idris refused to grant the pupils any reprieve despite pleas from parents and school officials that the pupils be allowed to sit for the BM031 and BM032 Malay paper meant for vernacular schools.

The school had mistakenly registered the students for the BM011 and 012 Malay papers said to be more difficult and based on a different syllabus meant for national schools.

The pupils sat for the paper at 1pm today after Yaakob made the order.

The pupils were confined in an area away from the examination hall at the time when they were supposed to be sitting for their paper this morning. Parents, teachers and education ministry and examinations board officials meanwhile held discussions.

Yaakob who came at 1pm after the discussion ended overturned the earlier decision made allowing the pupils to sit for their rightful paper and ordered them to sit for the examination immediately.

The school's parent-teacher association chairperson, A Sivaneson said that the director had also ignored a letter sent today, saying that the children should not be forced to take the BM011 and BM012 papers but be given fresh BM031 and 032 Malay papers meant for the vernacular school students.

Discretion to over-rule

"The parents are really angry to be treated in such a manner. The director just came and told us that he has the discretion to over-rule the decision before ordering the students to sit for the examination. Even Serdang MP Yap Pian Hon who participated in the discussion was annoyed with the director and left the school," said Sivaneson.

On Aug 29, the school by mistake confirmed the 93 students for the Bahasa Melayu 011 and 012 papers instead of the 031 and 032 papers.

Upon realising the mistake, the headmaster met an official from the examination board and was told that the students will be allowed to take the 031 and 032 Malay papers.

However, on Saturday night, the school was informed by the examination board that it had rejected the school's appeal and insisted that the students take the paper that they had been registered for.

Proposals

After a meeting yesterday morning, parents agreed to talk to the examination officers and Selangor education officials at the school this morning to further appeal on the matter.

Sivaneson said after the examination ended at 2.30pm, the parents had another discussion with all the officials together with Yap.

"We proposed two proposals and the examinations board tentatively agreed with us. But we were told not to divulge the details to the press as they have to brief the minister first.

"But we were told that there will be a special team to mark the papers and special consideration will be given to the candidates. We also told them that during the trial examination, the passing rate for the Bahasa Melayu subject was 53 percent and we do not want the rate to deflate because of this incident," he said.