Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said the Primary School Achievement Test (UPSR) fiasco was something very embarassing as Malaysia is seen as a country as having among the best education systems in the world.

Muhyiddin, who is also Education Minister, said he regretted leaks of examination papers were still happening when the Education Ministry had long established a sound education system.

"This something I can say is very embarrassing, it (leaks) is still
happening," he said when opening the National Union of Teaching Profession's (NUTP) tri-annual delegates' conference at a hotel in Genting Highlands today.

Last Wednesday, the Malaysian Examinations Syndicate (MES) had announced that this year's UPSR Science 018, 028, 038 papers which the students were to sit the next day were found to have been leaked and thus postponed the sitting pending the issuing of new question papers.

On Thursday, Second Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh said the English Language 1 and 2 papers, which the pupils had aready sat for, were also found to have been leaked and were thus cancelled.

Thereafter, the MES announced that the students would have to resit the papers on Sept 30.   

Improvement steps discussed

On the same matter, Muhyiddin said the outcome of a special meeting on it that he chaired in Putrajaya this morning would be made known later.

"The meeting ended just a short while ago, there were a lot of things discussed, I will not be revealing all the details for now," he said.

Among the things discussed, he said, were the steps that could be taken to strengthen the education and public examination systems as well new initiatives to ensure there were no integrity problems in the MES, Education Ministry and
Education Department.

At the same time, Muhyiddin said he welcomed the suggestion by the NUTP president in his speech that there must be an end to the culture of hoping for leaked examination papers.

He said he also welcomed the union's offer to provide consulting services to the Education Ministry.

"Maybe we (ministry) can benefit from the education experts in NUTP who have long served in the education line. As such, whatever initiatives we take, we will invite all including representatives from NUTP," he said.

Muhyiddin also recorded his appreciation to NUTP as the largest union in the country with 180,000 teachers, as a strong teachers union will be an asset to the development of education.

Earlier, he presented the NUTP's Honorary Membership awards, conducted every three years, to four recipients.
   
They were former NUTP Kelantan chairperson Kamarudin Ibrahim; former NUTP assistant secretary-general CNN Sivaraman; and two former NUTP executive council members, Choong Sen Min and Phoon Chong Chee.

The conference which began yesterday, will end on Wednesday.   

- Bernama