UKM don: Retain exams within SBA system
Published: Feb 10, 2014 7:12 AM | Updated: Feb 10, 2014 7:19 AM
The School-based Assessment system (SBA) could well lead to students becoming lazy since it does away with the Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) and Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) examinations.
The School-based Assessment system (SBA) could well lead to students becoming lazy since it does away with the Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) and Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) examinations.
In saying this on his Facebook page, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Mohammad Agus Yusof also noted that teachers face six main problems with the SBA system:
• It does not include central final examinations like the UPSR and PMR, so making it difficult for teachers and parents to assess students’ performance.
• It is unwieldy because of the current teacher-pupil ratio. At the same time, teachers in rural areas do not have access to the Internet in order to record the students’s performance.
• It requires schools to provide computer consumables but, at present, some teachers have to buy these themselves.
• Teachers may not pass the students to the right ‘band’ of performance due to compassion or because they want students to be placed at a higher level.
• Teachers may give less attention to teaching and more to recording the students’ performance.
• Students may become too lazy to read or think, as there is little incentive to do well in school with the removal of examinations.
Teachers have already complained about the long hours required to input data. A Facebook page has been created, calling for abolition of the SBA, while a protest is planned in Putrajaya on Feb 22.
Agus suggested that, given the weaknesses of the SBA system, there is a need to revert to central examinations.
“They can have the SBA system but .... I stress that examinations should be held as I do not want to see students becoming lazier. Make it 50 percent examination and 50 percent co-curriculum, or whatever you want ...”
In a related development, Suara Guru Masyarakat Malaysia working group chief Mohd Noor Izzat Mohd Johari has questioned Deputy Home Minister Mary Yap's claim that teachers want the SBA system to be replaced by a matriculation system.
“We’ve only sought the abolition of the SBA and to revert to the previous system. We have not suggested any new system. Clearly, the deputy minister has been misinformed,” he said.
Yap had said earlier today that the ministry has no plans to replace the SBA system with the matriculation system.
In saying this on his Facebook page, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Mohammad Agus Yusof also noted that teachers face six main problems with the SBA system:
• It does not include central final examinations like the UPSR and PMR, so making it difficult for teachers and parents to assess students’ performance.
• It is unwieldy because of the current teacher-pupil ratio. At the same time, teachers in rural areas do not have access to the Internet in order to record the students’s performance.
• It requires schools to provide computer consumables but, at present, some teachers have to buy these themselves.
• Teachers may not pass the students to the right ‘band’ of performance due to compassion or because they want students to be placed at a higher level.
• Teachers may give less attention to teaching and more to recording the students’ performance.
• Students may become too lazy to read or think, as there is little incentive to do well in school with the removal of examinations.
Teachers have already complained about the long hours required to input data. A Facebook page has been created, calling for abolition of the SBA, while a protest is planned in Putrajaya on Feb 22.
Agus suggested that, given the weaknesses of the SBA system, there is a need to revert to central examinations.
“They can have the SBA system but .... I stress that examinations should be held as I do not want to see students becoming lazier. Make it 50 percent examination and 50 percent co-curriculum, or whatever you want ...”In a related development, Suara Guru Masyarakat Malaysia working group chief Mohd Noor Izzat Mohd Johari has questioned Deputy Home Minister Mary Yap's claim that teachers want the SBA system to be replaced by a matriculation system.
“We’ve only sought the abolition of the SBA and to revert to the previous system. We have not suggested any new system. Clearly, the deputy minister has been misinformed,” he said.
Yap had said earlier today that the ministry has no plans to replace the SBA system with the matriculation system.
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