Many lamented at the delay imposed upon students who want to continue their tertiary education, with one parent, Andrew T.Y., urging for the official SPM exam results to be released by January instead of March.
Boon Haw Ang said this move should have been made a long time ago. “If forecast can be officially accepted, what's the point of having official examination? Roll out the result in early January instead of March then!”
They were commenting on The Star's report that school leavers will no longer be able to use forecast SPM results to enter pre-university or foundation programmes from January.
The Education Ministry notified heads of private institutions of higher education that such results would no longer be accepted as admission qualifications, unlike in previous years.
Noel Leong said Malaysia’s school terms should follow major countries in either the Northern or Southern hemisphere. “With school term starting in either September or April, then schedules of private and public universities will be aligned and there will be no need to rely on forecast results,” he added.
Netizen Noon Sod opined that universities should be allowed to independently decide whether to accept forecast results for entry into their education institution.
“If a person display consistent straight As in all test and exams, and by fluke on SPM day they can't focus (parent being hospitalised on SPM day or the cat died) then SPM result do not reflect actual capabilities,” Noon Sod added.
Malik Ayob said that forecast results were no guarantee of similar results during the actual examination.
Kimyee Wong scrutinised the private education sector’s shock at the Ministry’s decision, saying: “Private colleges are profit-driven business entities. These private entities would want to grab customers (students), the sooner the better. Why wait? Time is money.”
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