The abolishment of UPSR and PT3 has led to a generation of students struggling in science and critical courses, among other issues
There is no statistics to support this assumption since the malady is quite recent, but stop any secondary school teacher for her/his opinion on the abolishment of the primary school assessment exam (UPSR) and the form three assessment exam (PT3), the answer will sure be expletively admonishing, if not damning.
Both UPSR and PT3 were scrapped by an Australia-educated minister to reflect an ideal standard observed in more developed countries. Other than the land down under, examples of Finland, Japan and New Zealand were cited. The civil service toed the line as Covid-19 wreaked havoc onto the national schooling schedule and a reprieve, at that time, did make sense.
In hindsight, however, it is clear that it was not the best policy decision taken.
Take benchmarking out of any system, then be prepared to witness its rot.
The symptoms are showing now — the current batch of institution of higher learning entrants is the first generation that foregoes PT3, and the universities and colleges are struggling to get students for science and critical courses. Earlier last week, it was revealed that more than 70% of students offered technical and vocational courses turned them down. Desperate for students, the ministry in charge quickly opened the offer to non-technical students, as well.
Teachers are relating how the senior formers in secondary schools are struggling at basic algebra, let alone calculus. The junior formers, meanwhile, are struggling even in basic mathematics equation.
And you can’t use the latest colourful SPM results as a dismissing point, because it is an open secret that the benchmarking is constantly rigged to portray a successful regime. We, the civil society, are supposed to believe that the passing rate for each subject is 40%, but the truth is, the hurdle is always much lower as the ministry will set a lower rate after the scoring curve is recorded. Ask any mathematics teacher of where she/he sincerely thinks the previous Additional Mathematics paper passing rate was at and she/he most probably responds between 9% to 15%.
Compromise the benchmarking of any system, and prepare for the rot. This needs to be addressed to cut the decay off its head.
In the spirit of giving credit where credit is due, the current Gombak-international-educated minister seems to be doing the right things to address the appropriate malaise within the ministry that goes beyond her predecessor. Fadhlina Sidek is the first female education minister and hopefully would be the first to NOT use it as a political platform to advance her personal interest instead of the nation’s interest.
Her effort to lessen the burden of non-academic responsibilities off the shoulders of teachers is being appreciated by the teaching community. The ministry recently announced seven immediate steps to alleviate the burden of teachers, including banning non-academic contests or holding appreciation events. For decades the teachers were held to ransom by glory-seek- ing principals who wanted to promote their schools as a non-aca- demic success when these schools’ academic performance went bust.
Attempts to bring back the ministry’s prominence in terms of national focus should continue, and Fadhlina should be well advised to ensure that education will not be neglected again in the national budget.
We could not go back in time to correct the past errors, and neither can we spit into the face of those responsible to rob the nation and finance it by cutting down our education budget from the high of 25.9% of GDP in 2002 to the mid-teens average between 2006- 2018 (bottoming at 14% in 2008), but we can well make sure that they are kept punished and diversion will not be justified again.
As much as the politicians are at fault, the civil service should pull its weight as well to ensure that the national education agenda will not be further compromised.
As for us, parents and private citizens, we should continue to strive to be the sounding board that the system should be mindful of. Elections are only held once in every five years, but we can start small, immediately. The ministry is conducting a curriculum implementation survey so we can start there. Log on to https://bit.ly/KurikulumKita2027 before the deadline on Sept 15, and type away.
- Asuki Abas is the editor at The Malaysian Reserve.
- This article first appeared in The Malaysian Reserve weekly print edition