Students from SK Sultan Sulaiman I in Kuala Terengganu showing off their UPSR results slips on Thursday. - Bernama
PUTRAJAYA: Pupils' performance in this year's Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) showed an overall improvement, with a total of 42,646 or 9.15% of 466,167 candidates receiving all A's.
Education director-general Tan Sri Abd Ghafar Mahmud said the Average National Grade (GPN) increased from 2.31 in 2012 to 2.27 this year.
The GPN, and the Average Subject Grade (GPMP) which gauges candidates' performance in specific subjects, operate on a decreasing scale where a lower index value indicates better candidate achivement.
"However, the percentage of candidates that scored a minimum of Grade C (not including those with all A's) decreased by 0.66%, from 56.94% in 2012 to 56.28% in 2013.
"The percentage of candidates who scored below the required minimum achievement (all D's or E's or a combination of both grades) decreased by 0.06%, from 3.42% in 2012 to 3.36% this year," he said when announcing the 2013 UPSR results analysis here on Thursday.
Abd Ghafar said a possible explanation for the overall improvement in students' performance was that candidates did well in particular subjects.
"The GPMP for the Bahasa Melayu comprehension paper in government schools, for instance, improved by 0.17 points, and the GPMP for English in vernacular schools also rose by 0.12 points.
"These high increases contributed to the overall improvement," he said.
Meanwhile, slightly fewer pupils from government schools scored well in English, with 74.4% pupils scoring a minimum of C this year compared with 77.3% last year.
Commenting on this, Abd Ghafar said the decline in the pupils' performance in the subject was "not significant".
"The GPMP for English in government schools only decreased by 0.06 compared with last year and this is not significant.
"But we are looking into the matter because English is an important subject - in line with the ministry's policy of Upholding Bahasa Malaysia and Strengthening English (MBMMBI)," he said.
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