'PT3 study next month'

KUALA LUMPUR: The Pentaksiran Ting­katan 3 (PT3), which replaces the Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR), will start in July, says Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

Muhyiddin, who is also the Deputy Prime Minister, said the case study instrument assessment for history and geography would be from July 1 to 18 while the oral test (listening and speech) for English and Bahasa Melayu would take place between Aug 6 and 29.

The written tests for Bahasa Melayu, English, Mathematics, Science, Islamic Education, Living Skills, Arabic, Chinese, Tamil, Iban and Kadazandusun would be from Oct 12 to 17, he added.

Muhyiddin explained that schools could choose a date within the time frame as to when the tests would be held.

“With the PT3, schools can gauge a student’s performance early on,” he said.

“In this way, we can intervene and help the weaker students early so that they can do better by year-end,” he said after atten­ding the Bukit Damansara charity carnival here yesterday.

Muhyiddin explained that students would be measured from Band One to Six with the former representing the weaker performance.

“We want to inculcate a higher order thinking skill among our students. This is in line with the development of education at the global level,” he said, adding that the PT3 was a more transparent and objective assessment.

He added that the ministry began awareness efforts last year and would continue to explain about PT3 to parents via various means including through Parent-Teacher Associations.

There are about 63,000 Form Three tea­chers nationwide.

On concerns that certain schools might purposely “upgrade” their students’ achievements to look good, Muhyiddin said a check and balance was in place as teachers from other schools could study the results.

Schools would choose questions from a pool provided by the Examinations Syndicate, which would also assist them with the implementation, especially in the early stage.

Bahasa Melayu teacher Winnie Yap said she could now help her students to pace themselves better.

She said the students would gear up for the oral test in August before getting ready for the written test in October.

However, a Form Three teacher was concerned about the new dates.

“I am worried as it’s less than three weeks to July, and neither the teachers nor the students have been briefed on the format.”